“THESE THINGS”
Saint John 1: 19-28
Rorate Coeli: 18 December Anno Domini 2016
Father Jay Watson SSP
The record of Saint John the Baptist is the Evangel of God—The Good News of Christ Jesus—Emmanuel. And it was written down by John one of the “12.” Saint Bernard of Clairvaux understood it fully when he said: “Do not run away, Adam, for God is with us! Do not be afraid, o human being, do not take fright at the sound of God's name, for God is with us! He is with us in the likeness of flesh, with us for our welfare. He has come for our sake, as one of us, like us, subject to suffering.”
The Jews, most of them, were unbelievers in the promises of God—THE Promise of a coming Savior. They had waited, their own Advent, for centuries and still no new and better David had come. But by waiting for an Earthly monarch to slay 1st century Philistines rather than for the Woman’s seed to crush the head of Satan, they had lost the faith. They had waited 400 years since the rebuilding of the Temple and still no restoration of Solomon’s glory had arisen. They were vassals to a Gentile occupying force and had learned to “go along to get along.” The Sadducees had become empty vessels of formalism, liturgicalism, and ritualism, while the Pharisees had perfected rigorous and pietistic self-justification in keeping surface rules and regulations. Very few were awaiting the coming Messias Who would be a “Suffering Servant” a substitutionary sacrifice; Who would not fight for a kingdom of this world but Who would bring the Kingdom of God back into the midst of His people.
The priests and Levites were not like Saints Philip and Nathanael of Bethsaida. The Jews had loads and loads of guile…and trickery…and murderous deceit.
Their questions were inquiries [inquisitions] focusing on rank and prestige, on knowledge and seniority. They could use the words, and texts, of the Torah and “Prophets” to ask about Elias, Esaias, and the other men of God, but they had rejected The Holy Spirit who alone informs the Church that everything Elias and Moses said, wrote, and did, was about The Christ!
And what about you? Who do you say that the Son of Man is? “He who loves me will keep my Words” Jesus said. Do you fear, love, and trust in God above all things? Has your behavior in this regard been manifest during this Season of Advent? Do you love your neighbor as yourself? Does your neighbor know it? Or are you selfish, lazy, impatient, angry, covetous, and selfish? But it goes way beyond your inability to obey God’s commands. Do you hold on to Jesus and truly confess Who He is and what He’s done—does—and continues to do?
John’s testimony about God, about The Christ, must be, and is, your confession. You voiced it—you trumpeted it—in the words of the Nicene Creed.
No one can say Jesus is God but by The Holy Ghost. The Spirit has filled you at your + washing with The Word and continues to place Jesus into your ears and before your faces to eat and drink.
John rejected the temptation that afflicts all men to turn inward, to gaze rapturously into the mirror, to grow down into one’s own blackened heart. The Spirit made that strange Nazrite, Essene, and Holy man turn his face and His ears to He Who lifts up His countenance upon His sheep. Even as you don’t gaze upon the Blessed Virgin, but instead let the Paraclete enable you to follow her words about The Word: “whatever He says—do it,” so too you refuse to let The Baptist become the star of this reading but rather by the same Spirit your ears are opened to receive John’s words about The Word: “behold the Lamb of God Who taketh away the sin of the world.”
John was correct because God the Holy Spirit is correct. John the Evangelist who recorded this text was at the River Jordan when He saw The Baptist pour water over Christ’s Head and where he heard The Baptist’s good confession. John the Evangelist, holding The Virgin in his arms to support her, was also at the Crucifix on Calvary. The Evangelist and the Mother of God saw that indeed while the kinsman had baptized with water, He Whom the world rejected(s) baptizes with Blood. He Whom the Baptist was not worthy to stoop down and loose a latchet of a sandal for, indeed had all His raiment taken from Him, including His sandals, that He might have His hands and feet pierced through to suffer, bleed, and die. It is Jesus Who stoops down to wash + your feet, to feed you Eucharistic Life, and to tell you, “I forgive you, you are at home with Me, I love you always.” Jesus looses the “latchet” of your sin and your grave!
“These things are done in Augsburg of Shawnee beyond the Kaw River where Jesus is Emmanuel.”
In the Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
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