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3rd Sunday of Advent, Cycle C
December 16, 2012
Terranuova Hermitage
Choose
Your Savior: John or Jesus?
By (Rev.
Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
John:
Not a Disciple
Have you ever wondered why John the Baptist never
became a disciple of Jesus?
No question, John respected Jesus. He humbly said that he wasn’t even worthy to
tie Jesus’ sandal straps.
John asserted that he should be baptized by
Jesus and not vice versa. He extolled
Jesus as “The Lamb of God who takes away our sins.”
But with all of this, there is no evidence that
John ever became a disciple. In fact,
John even sent someone to Jesus to ask if he really was the promised One of
God.
So, again, the question: Why? Why did John not become a disciple?
Why? Kingdom
The answer seems to lie in how John and Jesus each
viewed the Kingdom of God.
In one respect, both John and Jesus preached the
same message. “Repent, for the Kingdom of
God is here in our midst.”
However, their idea of the Kingdom was very
different. John and Jesus both agreed
that God would make his presence felt in the near future.
The idea of God becoming personally and
immediately involved in the world was a common expectation of the time, but
that is where the agreement between John and Jesus seems to end.
John and Kingdom
John the Baptist held a very traditional
understanding of God’s Kingdom.
He believed that God would come to his people primarily
as a judge, that God would separate the good from the bad – like the wheat from
the chaff, as he says in today’s gospel.
God would reward the good and punish the bad. God would include the good and exclude the
bad from his Kingdom.
And, God would successfully defeat all of the
enemies of his people on this earth.
God’s coming and Kingdom would be triumphal and mighty.
Jesus and
Kingdom
Now Jesus’ understanding of the Kingdom of God was
very different.
In fact, Jesus himself was the Kingdom and so it is
in him as a person that we see the difference.
No question, he would address evil and darkness. No
question there would be an accounting for our personal behavior.
What’s very different is Jesus’ way of accomplishing
this and the kingdom is very different from John’s expectation.
For starters, Jesus comes to save, not to condemn. He comes to invite, not to force by fear.
Jesus tends to understand where others are coming
from, and he does not judge. He relates
with others and does not distance them.
In fact, Jesus even has lunch or dinner with those
whose behavior or thinking is seen as sinful and wrong. In short, he includes all and excludes no
one.
So Jesus’ approach, his way of being the Kingdom of
God, is very different from John’s expectation.
It’s little wonder that John does not become a disciple!
What Should
We Do?
So, what do we and I do with all of this?
I cannot help but remark that both John’s and Jesus’
approach are present in Christianity today.
In fact, this probably accounts for much of the division and tension
both between and within Christian churches of our time.
That’s all I want to say about that. The real question for us is the one that the
people in today’s Gospel ask. “What are
we to do?”
I suggest that whatever our vocation, job, or life
situation is, we are all to embrace the Kingdom in basically the same way.
We are to embrace it as we see it in Jesus. This means, for example, that we are to draw
to God adults who are not formally practicing faith or those whom we see as
going in the wrong direction by engaging in respectful conversation about life
and faith and not by forcing them with guilt and shame or diminishing them as
persons.
We are to view a life of faith not just as
fulfilling obligations and agreeing to teachings. We are to see it also as a matter of
relationship, community, empathy, charity and social justice.
We are to reach out and not leave a stone unturned
for reconciliation – to forgive or be forgiven.
We are not to get stuck in our having to be right and the other person
having to be wrong and therefore their having to come to us.
We are to include and never stop including within our
family, our friendships, and even our Church.
We are not to exclude if, for no other reason than that it does no good
for others or for ourselves.
Conclusion
One of our Catholic Scripture scholars remarks that
John the Baptist urges repentance and conversion as a condition for communion
with God. Jesus practices communion as a
prelude to a deep experience of God and God’s love.
All of this is something of the kingdom of God as we
see it in Jesus. Embracing this is what
we are to do.
