Hey, it’s Gaudete Sunday, where we take a break from the penance of the season and put on the ROSE (not pink) vestments.
It reminds me of that fellow who was chatting with his neighbor. He was saying that he was worried that he was getting forgetful, so he was taking a memory course.
“That’s very interesting,” his friend says, “What kind of course is it?”
“It’s associative,” he replies. “If I want to remember something I associate it with something else. That way I don’t forget it.”
“That’s very interesting,” his neighbor says, “What’s the course called?”
He stops for a moment and says, “I knew you were going to ask me that. Hold on, it’s like a flower, long stem, thorns, and a bud on the end.”
“You mean a rose?”
“Yeah…hey, Rose! What’s the name of that course I’m taking?”
You laugh, but I’ve got my 40th high school class reunion coming up this summer…right in the middle of fishing season!
But reunions are a great way to get reconnected with old classmates.
How many times has this happened to you? It’s a few years out of school, and you run into someone from high school. You recognize each other. But the conversation goes like this…
“So…it’s great to see you! How are you doing? Yeah, I’m great. Are you living around here? Great….great…yeah, me too….yeah, great.
And you keep stalling because you just can’t remember their name!!!
It looks like John the Baptist is having a senior moment . In Chapter 3, at the Baptism of Jesus, there is the voice from the cloud that said, “This is my beloved Son…” Now, here in Chapter 11, he doesn’t even seem to know who Jesus is. “Are you ‘he who is to come?’” What’s up with that?
Our clue, of course, is in Jesus’ reply to John’s messengers. The blind regaining their sight, the lame walking, lepers being cleansed, the deaf hearing, the dead being raised, the poor having the good news proclaimed to them…all these are definitive signs of the Messiah. Jesus could simply answer them, “Yep, I’m the guy.” Instead, he lets his actions do the talking.
Just this past week I got a good lesson in the old adage: “People will seldom remember what you say, but they will never forget what you did and how you made them feel.” So it was with Jesus. So it should be for us.
In the second part of today’s gospel passage there is a line that just leaps out at me, “…among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
Sometimes we might feel like we are the least in the Kingdom. It amazes me that Jesus would say that even at times like that, folks like us are greater than John the Baptist was at that time.
Still, it makes sense when you think about it for awhile. The Church firmly believes that all old testament prophecies were fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. John was the last and greatest prophet of the old covenant. He even preached its fulfillment in the person of Jesus and got to see Jesus with his own eyes. Even so, the new covenant of grace is of such a higher order that even the least of those of us who are baptized into Christ would be considered greater than John the Baptist. Mind blown!
Gaudete Sunday is a day to rejoice. John saw the fulfillment of his hope in the person of Jesus and he leapt in the womb for joy. Advent calls us to rejoice that the fulfillment of our hope is near as we await the coming of the Lord in glory at the end of the age.