Sunday Readings Reflection: January 15, 2017

First Reading: Isaiah 49: 3, 5-6
In the first reading we have a "servant of the Lord" oracle. This a prophecy or foreshadowing of the messiah.
Gospel: John 1: 29-34
In the Gospel John is pointing out Jesus as the one they have been waiting for, the messiah.

In the Gospel, John the Baptist is pointing out that Jesus is the one they have been waiting for, "Hey, this is the guy, this is him...my cousin!" I can't even imagine how odd that must have been for him to receive that revelation that it was his cousin all along that their whole people had been waiting for.

I find John's situation very interesting because the Jewish people had been waiting on the messiah But the messiah they had been waiting for was a war-like king who was going to set them free from their overlords. Yet, here was Jesus, not quite a warrior king. John even questions this later. In Luke 7:19 John sends his disciples to ask Jesus if he is the one they've been waiting for. Jesus then tells them to tell John what they have seen in all of the wonders he has been performing.

I think we still have this problem. We have expectations for people we have not met yet and when we finally meet them they either meet, exceed, or fail our expectations. And sometimes we don't even realize we've met the person. One very embarrassing moment I had about a year ago was when my old parish was having St. Luke Productions' performance of  "Faustina: Messanger of Divine Mercy". I got to church early on the night of the show because it was a Sunday and we were taking our whole high school group to the show. When I entered our office building a co-worker of mine introduced me to some people eating at a table by saying, "Chris let me introduce you to these ladies. They are with the show." I said hi then went to my office. I proceeded to my office and found purses and bags. I figured they chose my office because I had the couch. No big deal. I wasn't going to be in their long. One of the show people came in, asked if I minded if she sat in their before the show, and I told her it was cool. She asked if I was going to be at the show and I told her yes and how we were bring all of our high school teens. Well, I then asked her what she did for the show. Now let me explain. This is a one person show. It is multi media and the person will at certain point interact with a video screen where everything is perfectly timed. I've seen posters online, on the show website as well as our church site, as well as posters all around campus. The actress is dressed up as St. Faustina in all of the advertising. So her response, "I'm the actor." I was beyond embarrassed for not recognizing her. Maria, the actress, was so forgiving and such a genuine joy-filled person. We had such and awesome conversation after that embarrassing movement and then I left her to relax in my office before the show.

Bringing it back to Jesus, even though he wasn't what they were expecting, he was their ultimate authority figure. And we know what happened. He was questioned, ridiculed, by his own followers even, and put to death. We still do that today, even with just regular authority figures in our lives. I think each of us can think of an authority figure that we really don't respect nor obey. We can also think of at least one who we do respect and follow all of their commands. At the same time, we do this with Jesus and the authority he left behind, his Church. The Church has John's continued mission, to point us to Jesus, yet many times we turns our noses up. I think sometimes we turn our noses up at Jesus and the Church because we have our own ideas of who/what they should be and when we turn out to be wrong, well we want our ideas to be true. "Oh Jesus wouldn't worry about that",
"Jesus didn't mean that", "The Church should stay out of this", "I don't really have to do/believe that" ,etc. Yet, he still came and died for us and left a Church, through thick and thin, to guide us, point us back to him, and always have it's arms open wide to all.

Challenge: 1. Think of a way this week you can be better obedient to an authority figure you don't quite care for. 2. Find a way to better follow Jesus and his Church in situations you find difficult to do so.