NATIVITY OF ST. JOHN THE
BAPTIST 2007 (TRINITY III)
During the past little while, culminating in a conversation that I had just yesterday, the topic of the depth of one’s commitment to God, to our respective individual vocations, has been very front and centre.
Also, just yesterday, we commemorated one of our own
founders, our first bishop, Carmino de Catanzaro, who died 24 years ago
yesterday. He certainly stands out among
moderns as one whose commitment and depth of vocation is beyond reproach.
And yet, it has been observed by Christian
philosophical types throughout our 2,000 year history that, for even the mostly
outwardly devout Christians, to have doubts is most, well, normal. In fact some will observe that faith without
doubts is not a very lively faith. And
not just the consciously formulated doubt, “Is Jesus really God
Incarnate?” Few of us indeed exhibit
perfect faith all of the time. Every
time that we are with others, especially outside of the Church, and we forego
the opportunity to identify ourselves as Christians, or fail to defend the
Christian faith, we are guilty of doubt.
Perhaps nowhere in Scripture is this point more
plainly emphasized that in the Gospels.
How often do we read about the wavering faith of the Apostles
themselves? And in one of the more
interesting episodes of that we have the example of the patron Saint of our
country, St. John the Baptist, whose feast falls today.
During his public ministry, according to the record
that we have in Scripture, John was a paragon of commitment to his vocation,
and one who clearly understood his position as it related to the coming
Messiah, “There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes
I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.”
And shortly after that statement, his bold proclamation as Jesus
approached him in Jordan River, “Ecce, Angus Dei,” “Behold the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sin of the world.”
And yet, this apparently unshakeable faith seems to
have done a St. Peter, if we may use that term to describe Peter’s waffling on
Maundy Thursday. In tonight’s second
Lesson for the feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, we read St.
Matthew’s account of John’s imprisonment, and his anguished question sent to Jesus,
“Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?” Some will suggest that John sent this
question purely for the benefit of his own disciples; however, we should not be
so hasty as to overlook the plain meaning.
After all, he joins the company of the Apostles in having such doubt.
There is possibly no better time than on the feast
of our patron to review our own faith against the pressures of a world that, to
a very large extent, has lost its focus on the Messiah. As mentioned, John the Baptist is the patron
Saint of? (Canada - the Roman Catholic Church in Canada has St. Joseph of
Nazareth as their patron; but John Baptist is not just the patron Saint of?
Québec. And even in Québec they now call
this day? Fête Nationale - doubt on a massively corporate scale). This is certainly nothing new under the sun;
at least since the time of Mohammed, if not right back to AD 32 or so, there
have been suggestions that Jesus was just another one of the great prophets.
Therefore, why don’t we engage in the very same exercise that Jesus had John’s disciples do in about AD 32 - let us ponder the very same things that Jesus posed to them. Which is to say, rather than a simple “Yes” to John’s question, our Lord told the disciples to consider the evidence. He wasn’t just forthtelling the kingdom of God as had the earlier prophets, He was actually fulfilling it before their very eyes. How often did Jesus mention in his public ministry that His works bore witness to the fact that He had been sent by God, and even if people found it difficult to accept Him at face value, they should believe for the very works’ sake.
Related to this, we must also observe that none of the Old Testament prophets, then not John the Baptist, neither Mohammed ever claimed to be God Incarnate. Yes, there have been others who have made such claims throughout history, but they have pretty clearly been severely deluded - quite mad indeed.
And against the popular mantra that Jesus is just
another great moral teacher, we might recall C. S. Lewis’ comment about the
gravity of Jesus’ claims about Himself in Mere Christianity, “I am trying here
to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about
Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept
His claim to be God.’ That is the one
thing we must not say. A man who was
merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral
teacher. He would either be a lunatic --
on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg -- or else he would be
the Devil of Hell. You must make your
choice. Either this man was, and is, the
Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit
at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord
and God. But let us not come with any
patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
Elsewhere, paraphrasing himself, and perhaps one of the
most plagiarized-without-giving-credit, and often poorly defended lines of
logic, Lewis plainly suggests that, when it comes to Jesus, it really boils
down to three choices we can make: He was mad, He was a liar, or He was telling
the truth. The historical record, which
is to say the Bible and also other records of His life such as that written by
the Jewish historian Josephus, clearly indicate that he was not mad. Again, by His examples and deeds, we have
equally clear proof that He was not lying.
Granted, some of His claims will not be realized until His coming again;
however in almost 2000 years, there is no sign that anything that He said or
claimed about Himself is a lie. Which
leaves us with the third choice that, based on the proof of His acts and
teaching, He must have been telling the truth.
Of course, in modern times, especially in western society, many have added a fourth choice, and that is to ignore Him or explain Him away by doubting the veracity of the record of His deeds - really just attempting to bring choice number two, that He was a liar, back into play. Which may bring us to why so many people have become confused about Christianity when compared to other religions. Most certainly, without Jesus, Christianity would be just another great philosophy for people who feel that it is important to be nice to other people. However Christianity without Christ, or distilling Him down into just a nice guy, is not Christianity. How did S. Paul state this? Jesus is a "stumblingblock" to people of other religions or philosophies. If anyone thinks about this seriously, they will quickly come to realize that, precisely because He is so unique, this is why so many throughout history have tried to explain Him away as merely a figure from the past who is not relevant to today's world. Heed Lewis’ words elsewhere, “If Christianity is false, it is of no importance; if true, it is of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important.” Truthfully, I suspect that the majority of non-believers today are not so because of any deep philosophical considerations; rather, in my experience, it is simply because they won’t allow themselves even to bother to think about Jesus or the possibility of eternal life - but that’s another whole sermon topic.
And let us not leave our thoughts of John the Baptist as of one who is known for having doubted our Lord’s Messiahship. Rather, let us draw encouragement from that for which he is truly known, inspired by the depth of his vocation and commitment so that we too may constantly speak the truth, against the pressures of political correctness; boldly rebuke vice, against the risk of “not being cool”, but perhaps more especially our own besetting sins; and, perhaps most difficult of all, patiently suffer for the truth’s sake, against the internal desire for self-satisfaction and avoidance of any discomfort.
ANNUNCIATION OTTAWA 2007 +CR