Daily Reflections- June 24, 2012

Solemnity of the Nativity of John the Baptist

 

FAITH MORE VALUABLE THAN GOLD

 

John the Baptist clearly had nothing much in terms of earthly possessions. Neither did he have much to eat. No, dieting had nothing to do with it, the kind we pampered postmoderns are wont to do. It was all about doing and behaving as one thought and believed. It had to do with “doing” that followed “being,” as one “appointed before he was born to be prophet to the nations.” The issue of divorce was a big issue last year. So was the divorce between sex and the call to life, and responsibility for unborn life. But there is one more insidious underlying divorce that I want to reflect on today – the divorce between faith and life, the seeping tendency to separate being from doing.

John the Baptist was great, first and foremost, for being the forerunner of the Messiah. He was called and sent to prepare the way of the Lord. But his greatness was heightened and affirmed by a lifestyle and behaviour that befitted his lofty mission. As precursor in the way of the Messiah, he knew whereof he spoke. Leveling roads and filling in potholes were not just figures of speech, good for publications like this. He walked his talk. And how!

This puts preachers like me to shame — the call to consistency, the so-called “unity of life” where faith and life meet at the crossroads of daily existence. But so are the rest of us who claim to be Catholics. One cannot lay claim to belong to the Church if one does not lay claim, too, to believing in the one faith, one Lord, one Baptism, one Church, and one God and Father of all!

The great divorce in our times has led to many disturbing consequences. Cafeteria Catholicism is one of them, or the tendency to choose what one wants to believe, or what one wants to follow and obey. John the Baptist has a lot to teach us today and every day of our lives. He talks about not only the way to follow — he shows us how. And he does so by living what he preached — living simply and frugally, for he deemed his faith more valuable than gold! Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

 

REFLECTION QUESTION: Is there a divorce between what you believe in and how you live your life? Bridge that gap now.

 

Lord Jesus, grant me the courage and audacity of John the Baptist. Let me be not afraid, despite contradictions from the world, to live my faith as I should.