Bible Study Reflection #25: Welcome the Holy Spirit

I've been a bit slow posting these COVID-driven Bible Study Reflections, so I'll post the two most recent today. I hope they strike a needed chord with at least a few of my regular readers. Stay healthy, folks; but even more important, stay faithful and trust in our loving, merciful God.

_________________

Many years ago, I read an article in which the writer ranked historical events and people, identifying those he believed were most influential. Einstein or Edison? Henry Ford or Henry Aaron? Hitler, Stalin, Roosevelt, or Churchill? Moses, Buddha, Jesus, or Mohammed? Or which events were more important? World War II or the Napoleonic Wars? The invention of the digital computer or the invention of indoor plumbing?

An interesting article, although the writer’s biases were fairly evident. But I suppose, like most of us, he too carries his biases to work. Ironically, perhaps the most biased among us are the secular pundits who claim to have rid themselves of religious bias and therefore belittle the importance of religion in the lives of others. Because they lack religious faith, they dismiss it as an important motivation. The irony is even greater because religious faith, when viewed objectively, has had more impact on human history — for both good and bad — than any other factor.

I recall watching a news show back at the turn of the millennium. The host asked a historian to name the most important people in human history. I don’t remember the historian’s name, but he made a point of calling himself an agnostic. And then he said something surprising, which I've paraphrased here:

As an historian, I’d have to say the most influential person in human history is Jesus Christ. The problem is, I can't understand how he came to be so influential. He was really a nobody, tucked away in a little corner of the world. He didn't write anything. He didn't go anywhere or do anything very important. He was executed for treason. And his followers? Just a handful of simple peasants. He should have been forgotten in a matter of days or weeks. It's truly inexplicable. But that's history.

Yes, Mr. Historian, that is history. And this history, viewed from the perspective of the Church's teachings, becomes very explainable. You see, the three most influential events in the history of humanity all centered on the person of Jesus Christ, and these events all took place within eight weeks of each other. Another thing they have in common: they were actions, taken not by men, but by God Himself. These events are true history — perhaps we should say, His Story — the story of the Creator of all doing the most remarkable things in an almost unbelievable, inexplicable way.

The Incarnation is the story of a loving Father sending His Son to suffer and die at the hands of those He created as a perfect offering for their sins. Our historian was at least partially right: Jesus Christ is inexplicable, until we plumb the depths of God's Love for us. His Story doesn't end on the cross at Calvary, which is the first of those three events. If it had, our historian's instincts would have been correct, and Jesus would have been, at most, a mere footnote.

But the Father wasn’t content to let it end there. He wanted us to know and to accept the truth. And so, three days later, the second event occurred. Jesus rose from the dead to prove His Divinity and to give a foretaste of what awaits those who love Him and keep His commandments.

But even the Resurrection, this momentous event, was insufficient. For the Father wants His Truth, and the knowledge of His infinite Love, to spread to the ends of the earth. His Son’s sacrificial death wasn’t just for a handful of followers, and not just for the Jewish people, His Chosen Ones, who for centuries preserved His Law. No, this act of redemption was for all of humanity, for every person is a child of God.

We, therefore, celebrate this third event, a relatively brief event in the history of salvation, but an event of such impact that it altered the very history of the world, permanently and profoundly. For what took place in Jerusalem on a Sunday morning almost 2,000 years ago is God's lasting gift to His children.

In his Gospel, St. John offers a glimpse of the effects of this special day:

On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and exclaimed, “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink. As Scripture says: Rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me.” He said this in reference to the Spirit that those who came to believe in him were to receive. There was, of course, no Spirit yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified [Jn 7:37-39].

The Father had sent His Son to suffer and die as a redemptive sacrifice, to free us from the slavery of sin and death and to give us the hope of eternal life. Now He sends His Holy Spirit, the giver of life, the personification of the Divine Love between Father and Son. And what power the Spirit has! Suddenly, 120 men and women, this fearful little band of followers, are transformed.

If someone’s never been afraid – really afraid, afraid he might suffer a violent death at any moment -- the fear that those who’ve survived combat know all too well -- then he probably doesn’t know how the disciples felt that day. They’d witnessed what had happened to Jesus, and they feared it might well happen to them. But as they gathered in prayer around our Blessed Mother in the upper room, the mighty breath of God and the fire of the Spirit’s presence engulfed them, changing them forever.

The Holy Spirit manifested within them the new, eternal covenant with God, the covenant Jesus instituted at the Last Supper. In doing so the Spirit formed them into the Church through which they would bring God's message of salvation to the world. How had Jesus put it just ten days earlier?

"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always until the close of the age" [Mt 28:19-20].

Now, for the first time, they began to understand what this mission entailed. And just as suddenly, all of Jesus' teachings, all of His promises, the words of the Word of God that had seemed so cryptic, became perfectly clear. Inspired by the Spirit with this new understanding and overflowing with enthusiasm for the mission He’d given them, they poured into the crowded streets of Jerusalem to share the Good News.

But the Holy Spirit had only just begun, and from those 120 disciples, He called one in particular to lead the way, one already chosen by Jesus. For in the second chapter of Acts, it’s Peter, the fisherman – full of bluster and human weakness, the man who’d betrayed his Lord in those final hours -- who now leads the way. Peter, then, the Rock upon whom Jesus promised to build His Church, is confirmed by the Spirit as the first Vicar of Christ on earth.

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it [Mt 16:18].

On that first Pentecost Sunday, the Church is born.

What happened that first day? Turn to the Acts of the Apostles and once again read chapters two through five and relive the wondrous events of those first exhilarating days of the Church founded by Jesus Christ. Listen again to the words of a now-inspired Peter who called all who heard him to repentance, Baptism, and salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Miracle followed miracle, and as St. Luke tells us:

Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand persons were added that day...And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved [Acts 2,41,47].

Yes, indeed, the work of the Spirit can’t be stopped. Peter, the street-preacher, tells his impromptu audience of Jews, a gathering from every corner of the Roman Empire and beyond, that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. He recalls the words of the prophets Isaiah and Joel [See Is:2:2,44:3 and Jl 3:1-5]:

It will come to pass in the last days that I will pour out a portion of my spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams [Acts 2:17].

Peter was preaching to a congregation of Jews, pilgrims who had come to Jerusalem from a dozen different lands to celebrate the Jewish feast of Pentecost. And as Pope Benedict XVI, in his wonderful, little book, Called to Communion, explains, on that first day, the truly Catholic Church was born:

“What first exists in one Church, the Church that speaks in all tongues – the ecclesia universalis [the catholic church]; she then generates Church in the most diverse locales, which nevertheless are all embodiments of the one and only Church” [Called to Communion, p 44].

We must never forget, as so many have, that the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, brought into being that day so long ago, remains with us today, still guided by the Holy Spirit, still led by Christ's Vicar, still committed to the Apostolic mission of bringing the Good News of Jesus Christ to the world. Just ten days earlier, Jesus had given His “Great Commission” to his nascent Church:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age [Mt 28:19-20].

But this mission isn’t something reserved solely to the successors of the Apostles, to the Holy Father and the bishops. No, this mission, this command of Jesus, is universal and intended for each one of us. This is our challenge as Catholic Christians. Jesus didn’t place limitations on His commissioning of the Church. We are all called to carry out the Church’s primary mission, that of evangelization.

Why this mission? Just look around you. It’s in all our lives: the sadness and hopelessness and sinfulness that plague so many today. These are God's children. They don’t need our condemnation or pity; they need evangelization, for the Father wants to bring them to Himself, and He calls each of us to take part in His work.

Does this call, this mission, frighten you? Do you resist because, deep down you are terrified of the idea of evangelizing others? You shouldn’t be. Just like Peter and the disciples on that first Pentecost, you won’t be alone. You see, we can’t do God’s work without the Spirit. St. Paul put it beautifully

In the same way, the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings [Rom 8:26].

And as Paul reminded the Corinthians sometime later

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit [1 Cor 12:4-7].

Do you see what Paul is telling us? We have the same mission, even though we carry it out in different ways. And it’s the Holy Spirit who inspires and guides each of us.

This first Pentecost reminds us that we need to be roused from the comfort and safety and solitude of our own upper rooms. It reminds us that we need to be amazed — that our faith should be accompanied by the sound of wind, the heat of flames, the cacophony of different voices, and the presence of the Holy Spirit, proclaiming the mighty acts of God.

Peter and the Holy Spirit remind us that we all have a mission in and to the world, a world that waits just beyond our parish walls:

a world plagued by sinfulness;

a world often confused, divided, and afraid;

a world calling us to look outward as well as inward;

a world waiting to be astounded by the mighty acts of God and by a message of hope, the Good News of Jesus Christ, a message He proclaims through us, just as He did through the Apostles.

Brothers and sisters, this mission isn’t an option, something we’re simply encouraged to do. It’s a command from God Himself, an essential element of our lives as Catholic Christians.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with finding comfort in the midst of our family or parish community. Just don’t get too comfortable, for on Pentecost God took the disciples by the hand and turned their little circle inside out. Suddenly they faced not each other, but a world waiting to hear the Good News.

Yes, this can be a frightening thing. But remember, when we carry God’s love and truth to others, we will never be alone. For that’s God’s promise: the Holy Spirit will be with us, guiding us, his wisdom flowing through us. We need only invite Him into our lives.

How did Jesus put it in today’s Gospel?

“Rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me” [Jn 7:38 – See also Is:12:3; Ez 47:1].

Welcome the Spirit into your life, and through you He will renew the face of the earth. Do it today and see the wonders He will bring about.

Homily: Pentecost Sunday (Video and Text)

Readings: Acts 2:1-11; 1Cor 12:3b-7,12-13; Ps 104; John 20:19-23

I've posted the video of my homily for Pentecost Sunday below. The complete text follows.

Homily Text:

Back in the year 2000, with the advent of the new millennium, I heard an historian, who claimed to be an agnostic, say something remarkable in a television interview:

"As an historian, I think the most influential person in human history was Jesus Christ. The problem is, I can't understand how he came to be so influential. 

"He was really a nobody, tucked away in a little corner of the world. He didn't write anything, or go anywhere, or do anything very important. He was executed for treason. And his followers were just a handful of simple peasants, riffraff really. 

"He should have been forgotten in a matter of days or weeks. It's truly inexplicable. But, that's history."

Yes, Mr. Historian, that is history - but a history, when viewed from the perspective of the Church's teachings, that becomes very explainable. 

For you and me - indeed, for all Christians - the most influential events in human history centered on the person of Jesus Christ. If we exclude the Incarnation itself, we can focus on three events that took place within eight weeks of each other. And all three were actions, taken not by men, but by God Himself.

These events are true history -- His Story -- the story of the Creator of all things acting in a most remarkable way, and from a strictly human perspective, in an unbelievable, inexplicable way. It's the story of a loving Father sending His Son to suffer and die at the hands of those He created, as a perfect offering for their sins.

You see, our agnostic historian is at least partially right: Jesus Christ is inexplicable, until we plumb the depths of God's Love for us. And His Story didn't end on the Cross at Calvary. If it had, the historian's instincts would have been correct and Jesus would have been a mere footnote. Fortunately the Father wasn't content to let it end there. He wanted us to know. He wanted us to accept the truth of His love for us. 

And so, after three days, Jesus rose from the dead, not only to prove His Divinity, but also to give a foretaste of the glories that await those who love Him and keep His commandments. 

But even the Resurrection was insufficient. For the Father wanted His Truth, the knowledge of His infinite Love, to spread to the ends of the earth. Because God created every person in an individual act of love, the sacrifice of His Son, this act of redemption, was for all of humanity.

Today's first reading from the Acts of the Apostles describes this 3rd event in the history of salvation: an event that permanently and profoundly altered world history, the event we celebrate today. For what took place in Jerusalem on that Sunday morning almost 2,000 years ago is God's lasting gift to His children. 

He'd sent His Son to suffer and die as a redemptive sacrifice, to free us from the slavery of sin and death, and to give us the hope of eternal life. To spread this message of His love, He gave us the gift of His Holy Spirit, "the Lord and giver of life," the very personification of the Divine Love between Father and Son. 

And what power the Spirit has! Suddenly, those 120 men and women, that fearful little band of followers, were transformed into something very different. As they gathered in prayer around our Blessed Mother in the upper room, the mighty breath of God and the fire of the Spirit's presence engulfed them. They were forever changed.

The Jews had long celebrated their feast of Pentecost, a commemoration of the Mosaic Covenant as God's Law descended on Mount Sinai wreathed in holy fire. But now, in that upper room, the Holy Spirit descended once again, and ushered in the new and eternal covenant with God, the covenant instituted by Jesus at the Last Supper. In doing so the Spirit formed them into the Church through which they would bring God's saving message to the world. How had Jesus put it just ten days earlier?

"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age" [Mt 28:19-20].

But now, for the first time, they understood what this mission is really all about. And just as suddenly, Jesus' teachings, His promises, the words of the Word of God that had seemed so cryptic, became perfectly clear. Inspired by the Spirit with this new understanding, and overflowing with enthusiasm for the mission He had given them, they poured into the crowded streets of Jerusalem to share the Good News.

But the Holy Spirit had only just begun to act. Out of those 120 disciples, He called one in particular to lead the way. For later, in this same second chapter of Acts, Peter stepped forward in faith and began to preach.

Peter, the fisherman, a man full of bluster and full of human weakness, a man who had betrayed his Lord in those final hours, now led the way. In doing so, Peter, the Rock upon whom Jesus promised to build His Church, was confirmed by the Spirit as the first Vicar of Christ on earth. For on that first Pentecost Sunday, the Church was born. And with that, miracle followed miracle. For the work of the Spirit cannot be stopped.

Because it was the Jewish feast of Pentecost, and the city was filled with Jewish pilgrims from throughout the Roman Empire. On that day the Apostles baptized 3,000 new Christians who would return to their cities taking their new faith and the Good News with them. Yes, indeed, the Church was catholic - it was universal - from its very beginnings. 

The One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, brought into being on that day so long ago, remains with us - still guided by the Holy Spirit, still led by Christ's Vicar, still committed to the Apostolic mission of preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ to the world.

In our Gospel passage, the risen Jesus breathes on the apostles saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit" [Jn 20:22], giving them a first taste of the Spirit's gifts. But this mission to evangelize isn't reserved solely for the Apostles and their successors, to the Holy Father and the Bishops. 

We are all called, clergy and laity alike. When Father Cromwell chanted the Collect at the beginning of Mass, he prayed that God would "pour out...the gifts of the Holy Spirit...and fill...the hearts of believers." And that's you and me. You see, Pentecost is God's reminder that we have work to do.

Just look at the sadness and hopelessness and sinfulness that plague so many in the world today. Brothers and sisters, these are God's children. They don't need our condemnation; they need our evangelization. The Father wants to take them to Himself, and calls you and me to join in His work.
An impossible task? For us, yes. For we can do nothing without the Holy Spirit. How did St. Paul put it in today's second reading?

"There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good" [1 Cor 12:4-7].

Do you see what He's telling us? We all have the same mission, "the common good," but we carry it out in different ways and at different levels, using the particular gifts God has given us.

Today is a good day for you and me to invite the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Love, to fill us with His grace, to pour out those gifts, so He can dwell within us. Indeed, we should issue that invitation to Him every day of our lives. 

When we let the Holy Spirit enter our hearts, when we let Him guide us, and fill us with His gifts, He will teach us, just as He taught those first disciples, to listen humbly to others and to speak to others filled with God's Love.

Welcome the Holy Spirit. Enter into communion with Him. And then through Him, with your spouse, your family, with the others in your life, you can build a home that will manifest the Spirit's presence in your little corner of God's world. 

Can there be a better way to celebrate Pentecost?

Homily: Monday, 19th Week of Ordinary Time - Year 2

Readings: Ez 1:2-5,24-28 • Ps 148 • Mt 17:22-27
-------------------------
Jesus spent a lot of time shaping His disciples' hearts, opening their eyes to the Paschal mystery that ultimately must come. He did this first through the example of His own life, and then gradually in their lives. In our passage from Matthew, we see this shaping taking place.'

For some time, now, Jesus' allusions to His death and Resurrection had gained steady momentum. In the two chapters preceding today's reading, He  revealed to them the necessity of His suffering, death and resurrection. But today Jesus tells the disciples openly that, 

"The Son of Man is to be handed over to men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day" [Mt 17:22-23].

Although still unable to accept this, the disciples seem to have made some progress.

Remember how Peter reacted almost violently when the Lord first announced His passion? Compare that with their reaction now. They no longer dare argue with Jesus. Instead they're "overwhelmed with grief" [Mt 17:23] 

Jesus' words were plain, their meaning clear. The Apostles certainly don't understand the "why" of it all, but they've begun to accept its inevitability.

Jesus Reveals the Cross

Perhaps that's one of the reasons Jesus often calls Himself the Son of Man. That the Son of Man, the flower of humanity, will be betrayed by men underscores humanity's tragic self-deceit. By betraying God, by killing His Son, Who is also the Son of Man, we actually betray and kill ourselves.

Our loving God doesn't come to us as an all-knowing, omnipotent creator...No, He comes as one of us, as our loving brother.

Years ago, an agnostic friend said to me, "I could never be a Christian. Your idea of God is absolutely crazy...that the God who created the universe would come to this insignificant little planet as a man, and then let us kill Him. That's an insane God."

Yes, indeed, for many men, such love is insane. It's insane to them because they could never love so much. They actually despise how God approaches us in Jesus. They hate it for the same reason Cain despised and killed his brother, Abel.

The motive is clear: Jesus presents us with the reality of our better selves. He shows us how we could be, and we feel in our flesh the sharp edge of judgment and inferiority. And this presents us with two choices:

We can listen to Him and do the Father's will. We can change and become conformed to Jesus' beauty and goodness...

Or we can try to damage that beauty, destroy that goodness, in a feeble attempt to suppress its judgment of our sinfulness.

But Jesus' divine strategy overcomes our foolishness and our sin. He allows Himself to fall into the abuse and violence of men's hands so that, when they wound Him, they will be covered by the tide of His Precious Blood flowing from Calvary, from this very altar and thousands like it. For His blood has the power of absorbing into its love, and therefore neutralizing, the worst hatred of which we are capable.

Victor Frankl, the Austrian Jewish psychotherapist who spent much of World War II as a prisoner in Auschwitz and other concentration camps, wrote a remarkable book of his experiences called, Man's Search for Meaning. In it he describes how in the midst of unbelievable brutality and the most degrading conditions he found so many examples of remarkable faith and unselfish love. Again and again, Frankl encountered people who had achieved victory over the sinfulness that surrounded them. And out of this experience of abject suffering Frankl had a revelation.

He wrote, "Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love. For the first time in my life I was able to understand the meaning of the words, 'The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory.'"

And yet so many of us, we who have never known such suffering, never come face to face with the kind of evil Frankl encountered, the kind that Jesus encountered on that first Good Friday...most of us in our sufferings only argue and fight with God.

The Apostles, with the help of the Holy Spirit, eventually came to understand what Jesus meant when He connected the necessity of His suffering with the cross His followers must take up daily.

Let's learn from them and today turn to the Holy Spirit. Invite Him into our hearts, to shape us, to give us the joy that only the love of God can bring.

For the Spirit waits patiently, always listening for our call, always responding to our prayer.

Homily, Saturday 25th week of Ordinary Time

Readings: Eccl 11:9 -12:8; Ps 90; Lk 9:43b-45

While they were all amazed at his every deed, Jesus said to his disciples, “Pay attention to what I am telling you. The Son of Man is to be handed over to men.”  But they did not understand this saying; its meaning was hidden from them so that they should not understand it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying [Lk 9:43b-45].

-----------------------------

My eighth-grade class was quite large, probably about 40 children. And Sister Francis Jane, our teacher, handled us with a near-perfect blend of discipline and love. She was a tiny woman, and the oldest of the Dominican nuns who taught in our school, but she kept us in line and insisted that we learn.

She also had a clever method of getting our attention in class. As she taught, whether she was speaking to us or writing something on the blackboard, she would occasionally rap her desk twice with one of those bony knuckles. This was a signal that what she was speaking about or writing would be on the next test. I quickly discovered that if I took note of these signals – in other words, if I paid attention – I could easily ace the test.

Well, dear Sister Francis Jane always comes to mind whenever I read this brief Gospel passage from Luke. Jesus turned to His disciples and said, “Pay attention to what I am telling you” [Lk 9:44].

Jesus was shaping the apostles, teaching them to understand the depth of the Paschal Mystery, both in His life and later in their lives. Yes, He wanted them to listen, because it would definitely be on the test.

Not long before, up in Caesarea Philippi, Jesus had made that first prediction, a three-fold prediction: He would be handed over to men, they would kill Him, but after three days He would rise from the dead. In Matthew’s Gospel we’re told that Peter challenged Jesus: “God forbid, Lord! No such thing will ever happen to you” [Mt 16:22]. But this was followed by that sharp rebuke from Jesus: “Get behind me, Satan” [Mt 16:23].

Get Behind Me, Satan!

Peter and the others really didn’t have a clue about Jesus’ mission. Their vision of the Messiah didn’t coincide with what they heard from Jesus, because just like you and me, they thought in worldly terms. How did Jesus put it? “You are not on the side of God, but of men” [Mt 16:23]. In today’s passage from Luke Jesus predicts His passion for the second time; but this time, after getting their attention, He simply says: “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men” [Lk 9:44].

Delivered into the hands of men...

Unlike His first prediction, this time there’s no shout of indignation from Peter; no, the response is very different. In Luke we’re told “…they did not understand…and they were afraid” [Lk 9:45]. But Matthew describes the Apostles’ response differently: “…and they were deeply saddened” [Mt 17:23].

And note that Jesus didn’t use the first person here. He didn’t say, “I will be handed over…” No, he says, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men.” Yes, the Apostles were both afraid and deeply saddened because the Son of Man, the perfect One, will be betrayed by men – and not just by first-century Romans and Jews, but by all of us. 

By rejecting God’s gift of faith, by betraying God, by killing God, who is one of us, it’s as if we all actually betray and destroy ourselves. It’s as if we see God as some sort of alien being; but that’s not how He came to us, is it? No, He came to us, not in difference but in sameness, as one of us, one of us in all things except sin. He came as a loving brother of the same loving Father.

And yet the world hates Jesus – and believe me, brothers and sisters – the world does hate Jesus. It hates Him because He shows us what we could be. And the world fights that, doesn’t it? Indeed, we fight it too – that call to conversion – and try to do away with the judgment under which we live. What did we hear in our first reading from Ecclesiastes? “God will bring you to judgment” [Eccl 11:9].

But only if we become like Him can we be on the side of God, not of men. Only if we change, only if we repent and accept conversion, can we become what He desires for us.

And so, in the overwhelming mercy of His divine plan of love, Jesus allows Himself to be delivered into men’s hands. He allows Calvary’s horrendous demonstration of violence and hatred. He allows it so that when men wound Him, when they nail Him to that Cross, they will be washed in the tide of His Blood. And the power of that Blood, the Blood of divine love, can overcome and erase any hatred that fills the human heart.

The Blood of Christ

You see, brothers and sisters, once we accept the depth and breadth of God’s mercy, once we accept the forgiveness He desires for all, it’s easy to pay attention when He speaks to us.

Homily: The Passion of St. John the Baptist (August 29)

Readings: 1 Thes 4:9-11; Ps 98; Mk 6:17-29

Today we celebrate the passion or martyrdom of John the Baptist, the one whom Jesus called the greatest of all men, the greatest of prophets.

I suspect that most of us really don't think very much about John the Baptist, and John's probably very happy that we don't. After all, in his humility, a humility rarely duplicated, he considered himself no more than a sign pointing away from himself, pointing the way to Jesus: "He must increase; I must decrease" [Jn 3:30].

John focused solely on Jesus: in his birth and his life, even in his death. John's birth and life were a signal to humanity, an announcement: the Lord is coming; be prepared. Indeed, John announced the Lord's coming even before he was born. As Luke tells us, when a pregnant Mary traveled to Judea and approached Elizabeth. who was also expecting a son, John leaped in his mother's womb, greeting the unborn Jesus [Lk 1:41].

Elizabeth and Mary Rejoice

Even before birth John was moved by the Holy Spirit to fulfill his life's mission. Some theologian's have suggested that John, at the moment he greeted Jesus, was baptized by the Holy Spirit and, therefore, was born without original sin. Whether or nor this is true, John was still called to announce the Lord's presence from the very beginning.

At his birth John's father, Zechariah, proclaimed that his son will be "prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare His ways" [Lk 1:76]. And so, John's life was totally committed to preparing the world for Jesus, the Lamb of God, preaching the baptism of repentance. 

Imagine if you can the extraordinary impression the figure and message of John the Baptist made in Jerusalem’s highly charged atmosphere. Many Jews must have thought, “At last we have a prophet again.” What a furor he must have raised. Consumed by his mission to prepare God’s chosen people for the arrival of their Messiah, He roused them from their complacency and turned them from their petty concerns to the things of God.

In his Gospel, Mark makes John’s impact clear: “People of the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins” [Mk 1:5].

“…all the inhabitants of Jerusalem…”  Not a few, not a lot, but all. Yes, John had a tremendous impact. He could have claimed to be the Messiah and started a major uprising, exactly what many Jews sought. This alone was reason enough for Herod to lock him up. How did Mark put it? “Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man, and kept him in custody” [Mk 6:20].

Humility, righteousness and holiness were foreign to Herod. And because he couldn’t understand John, He feared him. Fear always accompanies power because the powerful fear that which threatens their power. Yes, Herod feared John’s popularity.

But before John was imprisoned, while he was still baptizing in the Jordan, Jesus came to him and allowed John to baptize Him, an event that signaled Jesus’ public ministry. This was also John’s sign to step aside, to send his disciples away, pointing to the Lamb of God [Jn 1:29].

"Behold, the Lamb of God"

“…the Lamb of God” were words that must have had an amazing effect on the people. After all every day lambs were being sacrificed in the Temple. But here was John, pointing at Jesus and calling Him God’s Lamb, the One who would be sacrificed for the sins of all. How this must have shocked those first-century Jews.

Jesus takes John's disciples  and turns them into saints, into miracle workers, into tireless missionaries, into priests of the New Covenant. John is the voice because Jesus is the Word. John would die in Herod's prison at the whim of a spoiled daughter, a conniving wife, and a weak, drunken king. And yet, he knew his death was necessary, for only in death could he truly decrease, only in death could he ensure the Jesus would increase.

The Beheading of St. John the Baptist

That, brothers and sisters, is the measure of John's life. He decreased to the point that he had nothing to say for himself and everything to say for Jesus. In losing his life, John found his life. He disappeared into greatness, just as Jesus promised.

But Jesus also says "the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he" [Mt 11:11]. What a beautiful reminder for us -- to remember our dignity as baptized Christians, For we are called to share God's life through baptism and the gift of God's grace. Of course, this demands that we live according to our dignity.

Are our lives like John’s, an offering to God? God wants to fill us with His glory all the days of our lives. Like John, we too were chosen by God before we were born, chosen to proclaim God’s goodness through our lives.

Allow yourself to be touched deeply by God’s love for you. Resolve to live today out of love for God, and like John, carry this Good News wherever you go.