My friends in Christ, in these last couple of months, we have been reflecting upon the major happenings that are the essential structure of the kerygma, the Greatest Story Ever Told: Created by God; Captured in sin; and now…Rescued by Christ. And our introduction into that third chapter as it were of the kerygma (Rescued by Christ) was a whirlwind summary of some two thousand years of world history, philosophy, and language. And the whole point of all that basically was an attempt to emphasize that the Lord had been very careful and very patient to orchestrate just about everything in order to prepare us (the world – all of Creation) for the great and glorious rescue mission…. I mean if you think about, the Allied forces did not just climb into boats or jump aboard bombers and then cross the English Channel toward the beaches of Normandy; General Eisenhower did not wake up on June 6, 1944, and say to everyone, “Hey! I have an idea!” No! That rescue mission took lots of careful, patient planning, and all of that in order to save the world from the tyranny of Hitler…. Of far greater importance: the Lord being careful and patient in His planning for the rescue mission of saving us from the tyranny of Satan.
Such have been our reflections thus far…and our reflections on the rescue mission of Jesus Christ continues. But now today – here is an odd thing! Today, we are given one of those precious few Gospel texts given to us for Mass that neither features Jesus at all nor even mentions His Name!
Instead…today’s Gospel text features Saint John the Baptist. And this is important. That is because the vital role of the Baptist in the great and glorious rescue mission of Jesus Christ reveals a great deal to us about many things; today, we shall focus on just three things that the Baptist teaches us in the context of all that is going on here…. One, that though the Lord certainly can do anything and everything without us, in point of fact, He does not want or will to do so…. Two, that Advent is a blessed time for us to prepare for the great and glorious mission to commence, and it is a time also when the Lord, too, is in the midst of busy preparation…. And three, that the first order of business in preparing the way for the Lord…is to prepare for the light.
The first thing: God does not want or will to go about all of this rescue-mission stuff alone, though of course God certainly is capable enough – powerful enough – to do so. The Lord’s peculiar use of mediators has a long and storied history – in fact, from the very beginning, in the Garden. It was God’s Garden, after all…yet from the start, it was God’s will that it be the first humans – Adam and Eve – who shall “cultivate and care for it.” God could do it…but Adam and Eve did do it. The Lord did not need them…but certainly, He wanted them.
And so on and so forth, all through the ages. Just as the Lord created a Garden out of pure nothing, so He could have made an Ark, too, out of pure nothing – yet it was His will that Noah do it instead. And just as the Lord spoke quite plainly to Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, and Moses, He could have spoken thus to all the Chosen People – yet it was His will to speak only to Moses and then to have Moses speak on His behalf to the people Israel.
And even unto our own day and age: the Lord still can do anything and everything Himself, yet He willed to create His beautiful Bride without spot or wrinkle…the Church – and thus, through the Church, to communicate His grace (His very life) to all the world.
Indeed, the Lord’s peculiar use of mediators has a long and storied history. And Saint John the Baptist is yet another sample of God’s use of mediation. God the Son, Jesus Christ, could have just arrived on the scene and said, “Ta-da!” But instead, He sent the Baptist first…to announce His coming…to prepare His way.
So the Lord wills to recruit us, too, as mediators of His life and grace. That is precisely what Saint Matthew tries to tell us in his telling of the parable of the sheep and the goats. “I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink.” The Lord can feed Himself – and He Himself can provide for the poor…but it is His will that we do it.
And this is a lesson learned also in the miraculous feeding of the multitudes; Jesus could have snapped His fingers, and boom! Food appears. But He willed instead that He have something to go on – some nature upon which to build His grace. And so, the disciples tell Him that “five loaves and
two fish are all we have [here].” Good enough! He willed to use that skimpy lot (the mediation of the disciples’ meager supply) in order to effect His grace for the multitudes.
So again, the first thing: the Lord does not want or will to go about His rescue mission alone but rather wants and wills to recruit mediators to join Him in this redemptive and salvific endeavor.
The second thing: Advent is a time for us to prepare for the great and glorious mission, and it is a time also when the Lord, too, is busy with preparation. I already used that analogy of the Allied forces engaged in considerable preparation for D-Day; that analogy, hopefully, helps us to understand that the Lord, too, was careful, deliberate, and patient in His own planning for our being Rescued.
But for now, let us consider our own preparation, focusing on our own need to be careful and deliberate and patient in our own planning to be Rescued. I have seen a film called Dunkirk – one of my very favorite World War II films ever made. It shows the story of Great Britain’s early defeat in Europe near the start of the War, after France had been overwhelmed, and before the United States entered the fray. More than three hundred thousand British soldiers were stranded on the shores at Dunkirk, surrounded by Nazi forces, running low on food, supplies, and ammunition…. And all of them needed to be rescued, though as the saying goes, they knew “neither the day nor the hour” of their rescue. But when the film begins, we see long lines of these soldiers standing erect, facing the empty sea, waiting for ships to appear, thus to rescue them…. And though the rescue was nowhere in sight…they were ready…they were prepared.
As for us…we know neither the day nor the hour of our final rescue – when the Lord comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead…. But no matter. The question is: are we ready, and are we prepared? Are we right now in a state of grace…or are we soiled and injured fatally with the filth and the wound of mortal sin? Perhaps we are in a state of grace; very good. But even then, are we clinging with clenched fist to something – anything! – that is of Earth but not of God? “I could never be happy in Heaven if my childhood puppy were not there!” We need to be redeemed of our
clingings to that mere stuff of Earth so that, with unclenched fists and with open hands, we would be free to receive the glorious bounty of Heaven…. And that is how we need to be prepared.
And finally, the third thing: the light. The Baptist (he himself said) was not the light, but he came to testify to the light…. We need to be prepared…. We need to be prepared for the light…. If you have ever been in a dark room – maybe in a dark classroom watching some video, or in a dark conference room watching yet another PowerPoint presentation (egads!), then you appreciated the fair warning: “Careful! Lights turning on!” Because that sudden blast of light hurts the eyes! But without fair warning, we cry out in rage and fury: “At least tell us first – come on!”
Jesus says to us, “I am the light of the world.” The world is dark with sin; the world is dark with pain, with sorrow, with terror, with vice of every kind. And if He suddenly were to blast upon the scene, then that almost assuredly would be just way too overwhelming for this world to endure; it would be like that guy suddenly turning on the conference room lights without fair warning after yet another long and boring PowerPoint presentation.
Saint John the Baptist is that fair warning. He came not because he is the light…but he came in order to testify to the light…to give us fair warning that the Light is coming, and that right soon.
The great and glorious mission of Jesus Christ draws nigh. Are we ready? Will we let Him recruit us to join Him in this redemptive and salvific endeavor? Will we be ready and prepared for Him, though we know neither the day nor the hour of our being Rescued? Will we be prepared to be cast into His Light when it comes? And when it comes, will we surrender ourselves to it…that we, too, can be the light in His light, shining bright for a dark and dreary, fallen and broken world?
O God – may it be so! And may it be that Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, given to us in the Eucharist, will empower us with every good gift that we will need for our rescue when – at the end of days – He comes.