Saturday, January 3, 2009

Yesterday

Yesterday we read in the gospel the interrogation of John the Baptist. 

The question posed was who are you to do these things?  "What do you have to say for yourself?"

That is the question that should always linger in our cerebral folds.  Who are we to do such things?  What do we have to say for ourselves?  What gives us the right as Christians to demand that the world change.

John the Baptist clarified who he was by clarifying who he was not, "I am not the Christ" he says. 

The paradox of our faith is that Jesus wants us to go before him to make straight the path of his coming, to prepare the way, but he does this by calling us to walk behind him. 

Only in walking behind him are we invited to go before him. 

John the Baptist knew this.  He was a disciple, a  follower, only then could he truly prepare the way of the Lord. 

Through him, men and women were drawn to the Christ. 

We are not the Christ, but we are Christians.  This is our battle Cry; this is why we do what we do; this is why we can make demands on the world.  We walk behind the Christ and thus are invited to go before him preparing the way for transformation. 

Excerpt from St. Gregory:
Different men have different names, which they owe to their parents or to themselves, that is, to their own pursuits and achievements.  But our great pursuit, the great name we wanted, was to be Christians, to be called Christians.


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