John the Baptist is once again at the center of our Gospel reading this weekend. He has moved from shouting “prepare the way of the Lord” to “behold the Lamb of God!”, then he admits that he did not, at first, recognize Jesus as “the Lamb of God”. And remember too that in the Gospel of Luke, after his arrest he sends two disciples to ask Jesus, “are you the one who is to come or are we to wait for another?” There seems to be a certain amount of ambiguity as to John’s understanding of who Jesus really is.
What is clear is that all of this happened in a particular time in a particular place to real people who actually knew this one called Jesus. God came to us, “Emmanuel”, and it all points to the need for us to be constantly looking for the way in which God continues to come to us and is present in every moment of our day, of our life. Much like the Magi we heard of on the Feast of the Epiphany, they saw the star, they looked up at the same night sky as all the rest of the people of the earth but they were the ones who “saw” because they expected to see something…their hearts were open to God, they expected God to be present in their lives. John the Baptist expected the Messiah to come and so he recognized him when at last he came.
Like John and like the Magi we have to look, expecting to see, expecting to find God present in the midst of our daily lives. Like them we too then will see, with expectant eyes, God’s amazing presence in the most surprising of places and moments of our everyday lives, even, or perhaps most especially in the broken moments of our lives too. Where did I last glimpse God’s presence in my life? Did I stop to savor it, or to share it with someone else?
God’s Blessings,
Fr. Tim
What is clear is that all of this happened in a particular time in a particular place to real people who actually knew this one called Jesus. God came to us, “Emmanuel”, and it all points to the need for us to be constantly looking for the way in which God continues to come to us and is present in every moment of our day, of our life. Much like the Magi we heard of on the Feast of the Epiphany, they saw the star, they looked up at the same night sky as all the rest of the people of the earth but they were the ones who “saw” because they expected to see something…their hearts were open to God, they expected God to be present in their lives. John the Baptist expected the Messiah to come and so he recognized him when at last he came.
Like John and like the Magi we have to look, expecting to see, expecting to find God present in the midst of our daily lives. Like them we too then will see, with expectant eyes, God’s amazing presence in the most surprising of places and moments of our everyday lives, even, or perhaps most especially in the broken moments of our lives too. Where did I last glimpse God’s presence in my life? Did I stop to savor it, or to share it with someone else?
God’s Blessings,
Fr. Tim
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