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No Man Greater

Alexander the Great

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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Mm Hm

Yes

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.


Heat is real; cold is not. Cold is the absence of heat. Good is real; evil is not. Evil is the absence of good, the subtraction of good.

There have been at various times in history philosophers who have posited dual, equal forces in the universe: A force of good, and a force of evil. These are like uneducated scientists, who would argue for the existence of two physical energies, heat and cold.

So it is that Paul tells us today that Jesus is not “yes” and “no.” Jesus is the eternal “yes” to the Father, which reached a special human climax in the agony in the garden, when He told His Father, “Yet, not my will, but yours be done.” (cf. Lk. 22:42) It is a “yes” that is mirrored in the “May it be done unto me according to your word” of His mother, which ushers Him into the world.

Jesus is the eternal Positive. He is not the “no” to sin; He is the “yes” to happiness, fulfillment, and love. Our “no” to sin is a double negative–“no” to “no” to God. In the end, though, once we get past our fixation with the allurements of sin, Christian life is much more about the direct path: The simple, constant “yes” to God.

This “yes,” in all its simplicity, is the salt that seasons the world and the light that illumines the world, which Jesus describes in the gospel. This “yes” is a compelling force, a saving power wielded by every Christian who makes it his or her life.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Tell Jesus “yes,” unconditionally. Ask Him for the gift that your “yes” be the constant definition of your life, as it was for Him.

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