This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.
“Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist.” (Mt. 11:11)
This is the superlative fashion with which Jesus refers to John the Baptist. What would it mean to us to receive such a striking compliment from the Son of God?
And indeed, as today’s psalm tells us, John was “wonderfully made.” The first reading foreshadows the greatness to which Jesus alludes, and as we celebrate the birth of the Baptist, it shows us that this greatness is with John from the beginning:
The LORD called me from birth,
from my mother’s womb he gave me my name.
He made of me a sharp-edged sword
and concealed me in the shadow of his arm.
He made me a polished arrow,
in his quiver he hid me.
It would seem that John was special from the start.
Are you likewise special from the start? The answer is a resounding “yes,” IF you fulfill your destiny. Your mission as a follower of Jesus is no less great than John’s, as Jesus Himself says in the same verse in Mt. 11: “yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
All that stands between us and the same destiny to greatness enjoyed by John the Baptist, a destiny his from eternity, is our unconditional and daily “yes” to God. When spoken to God, the word “yes” is like a roller coaster car that one enters in the dark, not knowing where it will take one.
So it was for John. That “yes” brought him to a grand prophetic mission, and after that to a death tragic and gruesome, yet glorious in the eyes of God.
Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Tell Jesus that you do not doubt the glory of your destiny, and that you want the destiny He wants for you with all your heart. Tell Him He has free rein, a blank check to take your life wherever He wishes.
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