His mission had taken him quite a distance. From the splendor of Pharaoh’s palace, to a stroll through the Red Sea, to wrestling with Israel’s stubbornness for forty years in the desert. How sad that Moses never made it across the Jordan! But God did give him a moment of consolation. He brought him up to the top of Mount Nebo and showed him the Promised Land.
JOHN THE BAPTIST, HOPE & THE KINGDOM
John the Baptist had a similar mission. He proclaimed the imminent coming of the Kingdom and labored tirelessly to prepare the way. Yet, on a Gaudete Sunday that is supposed to be about joy, we find him locked in a dismal dungeon, awaiting execution. He sends a message to his cousin, looking for some shred of hope. “Are you the one who is to come?”
The message sent back to him no doubt made excitement surge throughout his weary bones. The prophecy of Isaiah 61 had been fulfilled: the blind see, cripples walk, lepers become clean, the dead are raised, and the poor hear good news. This could mean only one thing-the anointed one, the messiah, has come.
But though John had seen the anointed one and heard of his wonderful works, he, like Moses, did not enter into the Kingdom during his lifetime. This is the meaning of the puzzling words of Jesus: “History has not known a man born of woman greater than John the Baptizer. Yet the least born into the kingdom of God is greater than he” [Matthew 11:11].
Rejoice in Hope — Integrated Catholic Life™
Rejoice in Hope — Integrated Catholic Life™
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