Today’s
Gospel Text: As the people were in
expectation, and all men questioned in their hearts concerning John, whether
perhaps he were the Christ, 16 John answered them all, "I
baptize you with water; but he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of
whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; he will baptize you with the Holy
Spirit and with fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his
hand, to clear his threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into his granary,
but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."18 So, with many other
exhortations, he preached good news to the people. 19 But Herod the tetrarch, who had
been reproved by him for Hero'di-as, his brother's wife, and for all the evil
things that Herod had done, 20 added this to them all, that he
shut up John in prison. 21 Now when all the people were
baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was
opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended
upon him in bodily form, as a dove, and a voice came from heaven, "Thou
art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased." Lk 3:15-16, 21-22
Reflection: There are many who question in their hearts
rather than ask the person concerned.
Fortunately in the case of John the Baptist, it seems, he knew what was in their
hearts.
So we have a situation
where the people question in their hearts; this is a natural process for every
human being. But there can be three
categories of people here:
- Who consult only their hearts and nothing more because they are wise in their own eyes
- In the second category, the heart which is the meeting place for many voices is consulted; these voices could be the many forms of advices, admonitions and earthly wisdom, which includes our learning’s from the worldly wise and above all the evil one and we arrive at our conclusions based on the earlier studied categories and yet may, many a times, not give credit to anyone nor know, but assert it is our own and the world will also have us believe that.
- In the third category we may have the above categories as in pt. 3 but such wisdom maybe discerningly stored in hearts, here we have the Holy Spirit to help us to rely on divine wisdom to arrive at perfect decisions.
Therefore a heart that
is attuned to God through the Holy Spirit is also attuned to his word that flows
from any mouths – this is an objective reality but subjectively difficult to enumerate on
account of the mysterious ways of God’s working in our midst.
Though difficult, one
can do so if one seeks to follow the gospel in its true spirit and with a sincere
heart, with help from the Holy Spirit who has been given to us in baptism for this
very reason. (cfr. Ezek
36:26-27)
Hence
they had the answer to the many questions in their hearts but were every heart
satisfied with the answer that came forth to them.
May
be not, it depends on our sincerity with which we ask and the nature of the
heart. If God is the center of our
search for truth and truth is the center of our search for God then it would
not be difficult for us to know the truth because God himself is pleased with
such hearts to reveal his glory and self.
You will seek me and
find me; when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, says the Lord, Jer 29:13-14a
Prayer: “Lead me in thy truth,
and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation; for thee I wait all the
day long.” Ps 25:5
DD = Dedicated
Discipleship: Come grow
in the Lord with us
No comments:
Post a Comment