Word to the Wise
Wednesday, December 16, 2015 - 3rd Week of Advent - Wed
[Isa 45:6c-8, 18, 21c-25 and Luke 7:18b-23]"John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, 'Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?'" [Luke]
Occasionally I have come across nativity scenes where one of the figures is wearing an animal skin and carrying a walking staff. It is John the Baptist! IN this case we are asked to suspend logic and history and read him into the whole process of Jesus' birth. The Gospel of Luke does not let either interfere. After all, John was only six months older than Jesus! Their first encounter was rather indirect since they were both inside their mothers! (the Visitation). Furthermore, it seems strange that John would send emissaries to Jesus to make the inquiry quoted above. The gospels strongly suggest that Jesus was initially a disciple of John's. But, we are being invited in Advent to take a panoramic view of the whole story and not just the birth of Jesus.
Jesus sends those emissaries back with their own eye-witness experience of Jesus' ministry which includes all the things that Isaiah and other prophets foretold about "the day of the Lord." "The blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the dear hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the good news proclaimed to them." What would we say if Jesus told us "Go and tell John (or whoever) what you have seen and heard?" Our baptism makes us "emissaries," or, as Pope Francis puts it, "Missionary Disciples." The nativity scene is a good place to start that inquiry. So what if John the adult is lurking in the background! AMEN
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