It was all going wrong. John has been arrested by Herod and swaps desert for dungeon. His wilderness voice must find a way through the prison bars. Authority figures do what they like to do best - silence what threatens them. But notice what Jesus does. He moves immediately right into the heart of Herod's domain, steadily into the teeth of resistance. This is a dangerous move. But it was always so for those who carry light into darkness, life into death. What will happen to Jesus now?
Notice again Matthews insight. Underneath the machinations of human monsters, prophecies are unfolding. As Jesus fulfils the prophecy of Isaiah he is no fool, playing into the hands of evil men. He is moving according to Gods plan, proclaiming a message that cannot be locked up or silenced. The torch has passed from John to Jesus. The voice that cried in the desert now zings down the town streets, into residential areas and into the houses of Gods' children. The Kingdom of Heaven is closer than you think. If you are sitting in darkness and the shadows of death, God is arriving as the remedy. As Light and Life! Problem: God is now but people are not! So, Jesus needs help to uncover the hidden heaven. He needs people to fish for people. But first they must let go of one way of seeing the world and embrace another. If they are going to swim in the spiritual sea where all people swim, they must come to see the deeper and wider dimensions of life. They see hints of this in Jesus and move to follow Him. He will teach them that people are not fish and that they will 'catch' people only by appealing to the deepest desire of their hearts. Jesus is not hiding from Herod. He is teaching, proclaiming and healing through all Herod's territory. He is on a mission. Johns' imprisonment is not going to stop Him and people are fascinated by him. Here we must pause to remember all the people who have fascinated us in our life. Can you remember those you admired and wanted to imitate? Every day, people are leaning into life and coaxing it towards redemption. These are people who make the world a better place. When we catch them 'at it' we are fascinated and want to know more. When we see someone thinking, speaking or acting in a way that we are not yet able to but we wish we could - we apprentice ourselves to them. Isn't a disciple just a fascinated person who desires to know and do what they see in another? We gravitate towards them and learn something new. We have probably been doing this all our lives I heard a story once about a drug rehabilitation centre. One day, an ex-resident turned up in the reception area with a cricket bat, shouting and screaming and banging his bat on the furniture. Everyone dived for cover. But the manager came out of her office, walked right up to the guy, put her arms around him and gave him a big long hug. His violence transfigured into sobs. She held him in that strange embrace for a while then led him to a chair and waited for the police to arrive. He never let go of the bat. I want to know what makes this woman tick! And I have a hunch that she knows exactly what drove Christ back into Galilee.
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John the Baptist doesn't just see Jesus, he sees into the heart and mission of Jesus. His invitation to 'Behold' means something worth looking at is before us. John calls Jesus the 'Lamb of God' and so do we. Yet, the sin that He takes away cannot just be seen as the individual transgressions we might make. What is taken away is the experience of being isolated from God. Jesus frees the temple animals, because they are no longer needed. The disciples go with Him at the time when animals were sacrificed in the Temple and find everything they need in Him. What is needed is to have communion with the Beloved Son of God.
John also admits to what he does not know. He has to grow in his understanding and relationship with Jesus. John is granted a sacred communication that Jesus and the Spirit are inseparable. He has to work at this insight to make it bear fruit. Coming to see the truth of Jesus takes time, patience and a genuine desire to come and see what He is revealing. We see a pattern develop. John sees Jesus, witnesses to Him and creates new disciples. Two new disciples see Jesus, witness to Him and create more disciples. It seems that we have to find out the truth about Jesus for ourselves but others who have already discovered it can show us the way. We should ask ourselves a question about our relationship with Jesus and how we share this with others. We don't do this by having yes or no, right or wrong answers but by sharing the adventure we have been enjoying. It means we have to be honest about how our faith in Him has changed and developed. This kind of uncompromising honesty means that our sense of the adventure might be complex. I came across a story about three people who arrived at the door of a spiritual teacher. She asked all of them the same question. "Did you come to me because of others or because of yourself?" The first answered that they had been sent by others. They were dismissed. The second answered that they came of their own accord. They were dismissed. The third stammered that they had heard of the teacher from others and yet, they also felt that they had come on their own - part curious, part frustrated, part searching and a whole lot of other reasons and motives which were hard to describe. The spiritual teacher said, "You'll do." The honest, complex person was accepted. I don't know all of the reasons I am drawn to Jesus and struggle to follow Him. But in my own mind, hallmarks of genuine testimony begin to take shape. Honest self-examination, complexity and humility. If my testimony is meant to attract others to Jesus, I worry sometimes that after hearing or seeing me they might look elsewhere. But I also see that I must not over worry on this point. If I try to package Jesus, I lose the only truth that sustains me. You might agree that giving testimony is tricky ground. But what's the alternative? The Galilean stood high on the hill,
alone on the hill. Safe on the hill. and he did not like it. Like a God, Paul said, who, alone in the Heavens, high in the Heavens, safe in the Heavens, one day looked down to catch the eye of every human being looking up. And the slow tear of God began to make a tear in the Heavens. From toe to knee the tear was Compassion for all the blood that would never again find a vein. From knee to chest the tear was desire to unbreak every broken heart. From chest to eyes the tear was love, to kiss all who must enter the cave of death. From eyes to earth, the tear became Jesus, watching the brown river breaking against the waist of John the Baptist, who was busy burying people with his big shovel hands and then lifting them fresh and new with a force more violent than childbirth. The Gospel is filled with stories in which people come to see and love in themselves what Jesus sees and loves in them! Jesus sees the child of God in us with such clarity that we begin to see it in ourselves. But first he must know it in himself. The One who awakens others to love must first himself be awakened. In the Gospels, Jesus walks the pathways of Love and helps us to do the same. All that he says and does - his meetings, his stories, his teachings, his deeds - are in the service of this awakening. I think that the way we come to reverence and love our true self is the real reason that Jesus allows John to baptise him. He not only shows us how to allow ourselves to welcome the Spirit, and listen for the voice of the Abba. He shows us how to disentangle ourselves from all that is not Love. What he learned at the Jordan was this: ONLY WHEN WE ASCEND OUT OF THE WATERS WHERE WE ARE GIVEN A NEW HEART WILL WE SEE THE DOVE OF PEACE AND HEAR THE VOICE OF LOVE. |
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November 2020
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CATHOLIC PARISH OF ST JOSEPH & ST MARGARET CLITHEROW
St Joseph’s Church. 39 Braccan Walk, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG12 1HA (Directions)
Tel: 01344 425729
Email: stjb@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk
South Berkshire Pastoral Area
The parish is part of the Diocese of Portsmouth.
Portsmouth Roman Catholic Diocesan Trust registered charity 246871
St Joseph’s Church. 39 Braccan Walk, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG12 1HA (Directions)
Tel: 01344 425729
Email: stjb@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk
South Berkshire Pastoral Area
The parish is part of the Diocese of Portsmouth.
Portsmouth Roman Catholic Diocesan Trust registered charity 246871