Word to the Wise
Wednesday, December 14, 2022 - 3rd Week of Advent - Wed
[Isa 45:6c-8, 18, 21c-25 and Luke 7:18b-23]At that time, John summoned two of his disciples and sent them to the Lord to ask, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?" .....And Jesus said to them in reply, "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard...." [Luke]
DECEMBER 14 ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS, ocd
If this quotation seems familiar, it may be because we heard Matthew's version of the story last Sunday! The question is the same and the response is the same. The question is about hope: Are you the one who is to come? The response is about testimony. The "hope" was varied in Jesus' time. Different currents of thought existed about the Messiah and what he would do. The testimony is about what the Messiah was actually doing - "the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the good news proclaimed to them..." There is no triumphant defeat of the Roman empire or royal rule in what Jesus tells the disciples of John to report.
When we look at the "nativity scene" in our homes or rooms, what do we "expect?" And what is it we actually experience from the Lord in our lives? What do we "see and hear?" Are we like the shepherds in that nativity scene who "returned, glorifying God for all they had seen and heard, just as it had been told to them?" It is THE one challenge for the "missionary disciple": to tell others what we have "seen and heard just as it has been told to us." AMEN