| Did you know that you are greater than John the Baptist? "Aw shucks, I'm not really, am I?"
Well, if you are in the kingdom of God you are greater than John the Baptist. For even John did not have the full message of the Christ, nor knowledge of Christ's resurrection, nor the certainty of eternal life as promised by the Christ. Hence, even if we are least ones in God's kingdom we are greater than John the Baptist for we have the fullness of the Good News.
We hear in Luke's Gospel of Jesus who spoke of some of those who were considered least ones in his day: the blind, the lame, the deaf, the mute, those who died without hope, and the poor. Jesus regularly spoke of and ministered to the most vulnerable ones in his day including, the widow, the orphan, and the alien stranger. All of these people were to receive the Good News of Jesus Christ, preached and lived.
Today, the least ones in our society hear the words of Jesus, hear the Good News, and they rejoice. As much as they might be burdened by impersonal laws, limits, borders, prohibitions, and the prejudice of the current age, they are still recipients of the Good News. Even as least ones in our day and age, they are members of the Kingdom of God which Jesus came to reveal. They, too, are to receive the fullness of the Good News of Jesus Christ in which they will hear the assurance of salvation, forgiveness, justice, and mercy and love of God.
In this country in which we live, the greatest country on earth some say, there are no few people who fall into the "least ones" category: the children growing up in single parent households, often in poverty, or malnourished; the chronically poor who do not have the means or the skill to extract themselves from poverty; the sick who do not have any, or do not have adequate health care; the minor children of undocumented immigrants who are essentially without a homeland because they do not know their birth country and are not accepted by the U.S. which is the only country they have known; and the women, girls, and boys who are enslaved in an underground sex industry into which many disappear to be used up, to suffer and to die desolate and alone. All of these people are greater than John the Baptist for it is to these that Jesus, the Son of God came.
And Jesus brings us the Good News. We hear it. But do we live it? Do the least ones see evidence of the Good News in us? We are to bring them that Good News in word and witness. But will we? Who will look into the eyes of the least ones of our present day and assure them that they are worthy and precious in our eyes and in the eyes of God? If not us, who? If not now, when? Advent is about Christ's coming, not just for us, but for all. How do we who know we have received the Christ into our life and bring that Christ to others? This is our Advent question. Advent does not prepare us for Christmas and the celebration of the Incarnation of God as human unless we are committed to the mandate which Christ's coming brings. To be either great, or least, or somewhere in between in the Kingdom of God is a great gift. God's Advent grace compels us to accept that Kingdom and it mandates, today. The least ones are our responsibility for we are together in the Kingdom of God! |
