Dec.7, 2008: 2nd Sunday of Advent (B)

Depending on who speaks, we listen. We listen particularly to the experts or the authority on the subject. When we see an athlete on a TV commercial, we expect that he would endorse something related to health or sports. Sometimes that rule of thumb is not so obvious. For example, who would have thought that George Foreman would sell grills or Peyton Manning selling HDTVs? What do these guys know anything about grills or HDTVs? 

Although we naturally expect the person endorsing a product or a message to know well what he is endorsing, we give him a benefit of the doubt because he is a likable star.        

In the matters of faith, who do you listen to as experts? Are you more likely listen to someone who has a scientific background? Take for example Einstein. He was born to secular Jewish parents in Germany. Later in his life, he and his wife were invited to a dinner party one evening. A guest at the party said that he believed in astrology. In reply Einstein ridiculed astrology as pure superstition. Another person overhearing this conversation said belief in God was superstition. Then Einstein replied, “Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible laws and connections, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in fact, religious." In 1929, Einstein was interviewed by The Saturday Evening Post. He was asked, “To what extent are you influenced by Christianity?” Einstein replied, “"As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene." Then the interviewer asked, "You accept the historical Jesus?" Einstein replied, "Unquestionably! No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life."   

Sometimes, scientists like Einstein are more effective messenger of God than some of the preachers who preach the gospel on TV. On one hand I know of many people who have come to know Jesus through preachers on TV. But some have alienated viewers by their lavish lifestyle and uncharitable behaviors off the air. Yet, we are even more convinced by ordinary persons who live a life of simple faith and charity than eloquent and charismatic preachers with lots of wealth [bling-blings]. I know of an elderly lady in our neighboring parish who regularly visits a nursing home to bring communion. I visited this nursing home, and at the entrance there were more than 8 or 9 elderly sitting in their wheelchairs lined up waiting in vain for a family member to visit them. With these people, our elderly volunteer grabs their hand, smiles at them, and says aloud, “How are you doing darling!” To these elderly thirsting for love of their own children, our elderly volunteer brings assurance that somebody cares; God cares enough to bring warm smile and touch to them. In other words, the messengers of Jesus need not be world renown, charismatic, or eloquent in order to be effective.

Take for example in today’s Gospel, John the Baptist. He was not the best dressed guy, for he lived like a caveman in the desert wearing clothes made of camel’s hair. He didn’t dine at fine restaurants, for he ate grasshoppers and honey. Yet he was chosen by Jesus to be his messenger. Jesus said, “I’m sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the desert.” And his message was simple, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths…Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The best messenger of God is one who is humble before God. John the Baptist said, “One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the straps of his sandals.” On Monday [12/8], we celebrate the greatest of the messengers of Jesus. She is a 14 year-old teenager from an unknown town. She herself attests to this, for she says, “For God has looked upon his handmaiden’s lowliness…” (Luke 1:48) Yet the angel Gabriel declares, "Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you," (Luke 1:28) and her cousin Elizabeth says, “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” (Luke 1:45) On Monday, we celebrate the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the greatest of the messenger of God out of all the Old and the New Testament.

For all of us to become experts at messenger of God then involves two things. First, we need to be humble to acknowledge that whoever we are and wherever we are in the point of our life, God is the source and the goal. Second, like Blessed Mother, we need to believe that what was spoken to us by the Lord will be fulfilled. What was spoken to us? St. Peter says to us in the Second Reading, “The Lord does not delay his promise…the Lord will come like a thief…Therefore, beloved, since you await these things, be eager to be found without spot or blemish before him.”