THOUGHTS OF A NUN

Theophany

Matthew 3: 13-17
January 6, 2006

John the Baptist is like a traffic cop, like the one with the bright orange cone on the end of the flashlight. The officer’s function is to point people in the right direction. That was one of John the Baptist’s jobs - to get people pointed in the right direction – towards Christ.

John’s message was somber, grim like a funeral song or dirge. Many of those hearing John did not understand their predicament and weep. Christ did. He went to John to be baptized. Christ shared the feelings, the inspiration and the prophetic impulse of John. What I find particularly interesting is that John pointed to Christ as the Way. And yet there comes a time when Christ pointed out the many ways that John and Jesus were different. John was very clear about what would happen to those who did not repent-did not change their ways. The future was God’s wrath, anger, vengeance and fury. While John did not exclude the possibility of being saved, (otherwise why baptize anyone) he did not dwell on that theme very much.

John, however, was right according to the Old Covenant pattern. With John the old time came to an end. A new time broke in. It changed when John baptized Jesus and the Spirit descended in a way it had never descended before. It started something new, a new era, an era in which a father was looking for a lost son, a shepherd for the lost sheep, a host for his reluctant guests and Jesus looking for all those who are sick and sinful. Jesus made the difference very clear. He said. “Up to the time of John, it was the law and the prophets; since him it is the reign of God. The new life of the beatitudes was going to bring to fulfillment the old life of obeying the law. John lamented, Jesus rejoiced. John refused to eat bread, Jesus broke bread and fed the multitude. John refused to drink wine. Jesus turned water into wine. John walked in a camel’s skin, Jesus in a shirt without a seam. John warned, Jesus invited. They were indeed so different that John sent his disciples to ask Jesus if he was really the one. The reign of God became visible in a completely new Way. And we are invited not only to profit passively but also to work at its further revelation actively: to build it, to become involved.

For Christ the incarnation was a slow process. There were many steps along the way. He was born, and then presented for circumcision. At twelve he was taken again to the temple where he asked questions and then answered them. He wanted to get involved.

 Getting involved takes continuous effort. If you are not ready for that, beware. If Someone knocks at your door; do not listen, or you will get involved. A child takes her thumb out of her mouth; do not listen, or you will get involved. Your boss tells you about his temper, your son about his school, your daughter about her family problems, your aged mother about her loneliness, your friend about his frustrations, your father about his worries, your brother about his difficulties, your sister about her children: do not listen or you will get involved.

Every time that you listen, every time that you make eye contact, it is going to cost you time, energy and involvement. It was at the moment that Jesus left Nazareth and stepped from the crowd that he got involved. Up to that moment he had been hidden, safe, secure. But when he stepped out into the open to be baptized, he got involved. By the words “This is my Son in whom I am pleased”, was God letting Jesus know the course he was now taking with his life was correct?  Was God letting John know he was correct in his appraisal of Jesus being the Messiah? Was the voice, heard only by a few, an encouragement to those few to follow Jesus? Christ’s baptism, his stepping into the crowd, was a deliberate decision to get involved, to rub shoulders with all the others, to be with the crowd, to be with sinners, to be with all of us.

Is it not our vocation to be involved with those who may and should claim us? There are those entrusted to us, those dependent on us, and all the people we meet on our way. Is it not our vocation to be like John the Baptist and point always to the Christ in everything we do?