ESTEEM PEOPLE FOR THE RIGHT REASON
Here
is an anecdote about George Bernard Shaw, a famous Irish playwright.
The story seems fictional but the message is very true.
A country clergyman, hearing that George Bernard Shaw was an expert in
brewing his particular brand of coffee, wrote to ask him for his recipe.
Shaw obliged, adding as an afterthought that he hoped the request was
not an underhanded way of obtaining his autograph.
In response, the clergyman cut Shaw’s signature from the letter,
returned it with a note thanking him for the coffee recipe, and
concluded: “I wrote in good faith, so allow me to return what obviously
you infinitely prize, but which is of no value to me, your autograph.”
As the playwright in our story valued his autograph for the wrong
reason, so did the people of Jesus’ time esteem John for the wrong
reason. They looked at him as a hero, a fiery preacher, and an ascetic
with a distinctive fashion style. He wore camel’s hair with a leather
belt and had a unique diet of locusts and wild honey (see Matthew 3:4).
He was a prime candidate for the role of the long-expected Messiah. Long
after John the Baptist had died, a group called the Anabaptist held his
memory as sacred, even pitting John the Baptist against the disciples of Jesus.
In the Gospel today, Jesus tried to explain that John’s greatness was
founded not so much in his peculiar exterior but in his interiority, in
his personal holiness, in his determination in renouncing what is
sinful, in his passion in declaring what is contrary to God’s moral
code.
In our celebrity-obsessed culture, let us allow the real John the
Baptist to bring on the triumph of substance over style, of integrity
over image, of value over convenience. Fr. Joel Jason
REFLECTION QUESTION: How is your heart getting ready for the coming of the Lord?
I lay bare my heart and soul to You, Lord, ready to receive You and allow You to make Your dwelling in me.
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