- Are you?
- John the Baptist had his initial doubts before Jesus, hence he sent his disciples to ask Jesus Are you the one who is to come or are we to wait for another?
And this is a bit strange because Jesus and John B were cousins and even Jesus had been part of John the Baptist’s group in the desert.
- Perhaps it is that the Messiah expected by John the Baptist did not exactly coincide with what he was seeing and hearing from Jesus. Can be. Would John the Baptist be an honest and austere man who would live in the asceticism of monastic life close to the spirituality of the Qumrám monks?
- If that was so, it is natural that what he saw in Jesus did not seem very appropriate to him.
- On the other hand, the question of who Jesus is is very frequent in the Gospels. Who is this who forgives sins? Who do men say that he is the Son of Man? Who is this that even the winds and the sea obey him? If you are the Son of God…
- In addition, everyone has their sensitivities, their ways of being and knowing. There are temperaments that are more Christian than religious, others are more religious than Christian, others more humanistic, others more transcendent from culture and humanism: from poetry, music, literature, cinema, others see life more from ethics, etc. They are all paths to God. Our words, our languages and cultures are limited and we do not get to know or express what and who God is.
- The searches and evolutions in life are valuable, honest. It is neither sensible nor ecclesial to lurk with suspicion as a vision of reality. The wait, the doubt and the questions of the Baptist and of every human being, are honest, human, valuable.
- Let the human questions have a good run.
- Praise of the Baptist: icon of Christ.
Jesus and John the Baptist were very different in their thinking. John was a somewhat aggressive and harsh prophet with injustice, with legalism and Pharisees and Sadducees. But Jesus speaks of his cousin John of him as a great man: What did you go out to see in the desert, a reed shaken by the wind? … I assure you that no one greater than John has been born of a woman.
The greatness of John the Baptist and of every human being is to live as a witness of the truth, to be messengers of Christ: I send my messenger ahead of you.
John the Baptist was a witness of Christ, he did not claim titles or merits, he did not seek positions, I’m not even worthy of untying his sandalsJuan went ahead announcing the one who was to come.
Let’s be icons, not idols. Let’s look at life, culture, work, people as icons, not as idols.
03 The answer of Jesus.
Jesus does not give the disciples of John the Baptist a dogmatic book, nor the Catechism and tells them: “this is my doctrine.” Jesus refers the disciples of the Baptist to liberating gestures: the blind see, and the crippled walk; lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear; the dead are raised, and the poor are proclaimed the Gospel.
The gospel is good news, it is liberating.
Jesus does not refer to cultic or doctrinal perfection, what Jesus does are salvific, liberating facts: Jesus heals, restores balance to people (possessed), rehabilitates the marginalized (lepers), the encounter with Jesus confers meaning and life, etc. .
Jesus delivers all these salvific realities especially to the poor: The poor are preached the gospel. What is genuine about the gospel of Jesus is salvation – liberation, forgiveness, etc. – especially for the poor.
- Patience and hope in life.
In life we are tired and sometimes tired. Fatigue is a consequence of work and is remedied with a rest. The tiredness is deeper and is tedium, boredom, with the feeling of having wasted time and energy.
Many situations can produce not just tiredness, but tiredness, because there is no way out, no desire to change things, a terrible routine and apathy colors and corrodes everything in political and ecclesiastical life.
Be patient, brothersuntil the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits patiently for the harvest.
Patience is a word that comes from the Greek which means the ability to suffer or endure something without altering, that is to say: knowing how to bear, knowing how to bear the weight of life with a deep hope in the Gospel. And hope is the coming of the Lord. Stand firm. Said who puts his trust in the liberation of Christ. Blessed is he who is not scandalized by me.
The simile of the seed is simple but very valuable. The seed is small, it is not very visible, it is weak, but full of life.
Every farmer who sows, waits patiently and hopefully.
Life will always come out ahead, even if we don’t know how or where, but the Kingdom of God, the values of the Kingdom of God will arrive. Let us wait for the Lord by already making liberating gestures.
And happy who is not scandalized by Christ.