John the Baptist is still in center stage. In last week’s Gospel, he proclaimed a baptism of repen-tance; it was to be the symbol of a person’s desire to make some changes in his or her life. I took a line from last Sunday’s First Reading (“Take off your robe of mourning and misery”) and suggested that one of the big changes we can make in our lives has to do with letting go of that “poor me” or “pity party” attitude that we can so often clothe ourselves in when things don’t go our way.
Well, obviously that wasn’t enough for some of John’s listeners. They countered with a very typical human response: “What must we do to be saved.” Lord help us all, but we sure do like specifics, don’t we!?! But what happens if we don’t like the specifics?
It reminds me of my Mass announcement on the first weekend of December. I told the folks that Saturday was a holy day of obligation, and that we would have the Immaculate Conception Mass at 10:00 a.m. Saturday. The usual 4:00 p.m. Saturday Mass would be for the Second Sunday of Advent. Then I added: “Now I know exactly what question you have … don’t ask me because then I’ll have to tell you.” You had the same question, didn’t you? God bless those specifics!
That need for specifics is based on our need for security and control. We feel that as long as everything is under control, we’ll be happy. Well, has that proven to be true in your life?
One of the symptoms of needing to be in control is that we tend to amass more and more, to want more and more. So John addresses three groups of people and basically tells them “Be content with what you have, because it is there that you will find the presence of the Messiah.” As Fr. Anthony de Mello says in his book Awareness, “We have everything we need here and now to be happy. The problem is that we identify our happiness with people or things we don’t have and often can’t have.”
It’s good to recall the words of Paul in the Second Reading. Instead of bemoaning what you don’t have, in all things give thanks, he wrote, “Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
May your Christmas be blessed with peaceful joy!
John the Baptist is still in center stage. In last week’s Gospel, he proclaimed a baptism of repen-tance; it was to be the symbol of a person’s desire to make some changes in his or her life. I took a line from last Sunday’s First Reading (“Take off your robe of mourning and misery”) and suggested that one of the big changes we can make in our lives has to do with letting go of that “poor me” or “pity party” attitude that we can so often clothe ourselves in when things don’t go our way.
Well, obviously that wasn’t enough for some of John’s listeners. They countered with a very typical human response: “What must we do to be saved.” Lord help us all, but we sure do like specifics, don’t we!?! But what happens if we don’t like the specifics?
It reminds me of my Mass announcement on the first weekend of December. I told the folks that Saturday was a holy day of obligation, and that we would have the Immaculate Conception Mass at 10:00 a.m. Saturday. The usual 4:00 p.m. Saturday Mass would be for the Second Sunday of Advent. Then I added: “Now I know exactly what question you have … don’t ask me because then I’ll have to tell you.” You had the same question, didn’t you? God bless those specifics!
That need for specifics is based on our need for security and control. We feel that as long as everything is under control, we’ll be happy. Well, has that proven to be true in your life?
One of the symptoms of needing to be in control is that we tend to amass more and more, to want more and more. So John addresses three groups of people and basically tells them “Be content with what you have, because it is there that you will find the presence of the Messiah.” As Fr. Anthony de Mello says in his book Awareness, “We have everything we need here and now to be happy. The problem is that we identify our happiness with people or things we don’t have and often can’t have.”
It’s good to recall the words of Paul in the Second Reading. Instead of bemoaning what you don’t have, in all things give thanks, he wrote, “Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
May your Christmas be blessed with peaceful joy!
Fr. Herb, C.S.C.
