Skip to main content

Blessed is he who does not lose faith in Him (Mt 11:6)

In this Sunday’s Gospel reading (Mt 11:2-11), Jesus says something rather astonishing about John the Baptist. He says, of all the children born of women, a greater than John the Baptist has never been seen. And yet, even John had his weaknesses; even John had moments of doubt. The very man who had seen the Spirit descend on Jesus, and had baptized him was no longer sure if he was the Christ.

How could Jesus be the Christ in the face of so much evil; how could He be the Christ if he had left John in prison? Jesus sends a seven statement answer to John:
  1. The blind see
  2. The lame walk
  3. Lepers are cleansed
  4. The deaf hear
  5. The dead are raised
  6. Good news is preached to the poor
  7. Blessed is he who does not lose faith in him
The seven statements suggest that Jesus’ work is perfect. He has not left anything undone. Just as God created the world in six days and blessed the seventh day, John is invited by Jesus not to lose faith in him. It is through faith in Jesus that the perfection of God’s work is revealed. It is only through faith that you are able to see the hand of God perfectly at work in your life!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Swords into Ploughshares! (Isa 2:4)

Have you ever wondered what it means the prophecy of Isaiah which reads “they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks? Well, it simply means that a situation of war will be turned into a situation of peace. But why swords and ploughshares? The sword in the bible was an instrument of war. But not just war. It was a symbol of violence. The first story of violence in the Bible was that of Cain and Abel (Gen 4), when an elder brother killed his own younger brother. The ploughshare was a farming implement. The first farmer was Adam, the father of Cain and Abel, whom YHWH commanded to till the garden of Eden and care for it (Gen 2:15). The prophecy of Isaiah is thus a vision of a return from violence to what God originally intended – the peace of Eden. This is what God intends for us this week. May God banish from your heart every violence and return   you to the peace in which you were created.
4 comments
Read more

Honour thy father and thy mother (Ex. 20:12)

The fourth commandment enjoins us to honour our parents and it even adds a promise; that we might live long in the land (Ex. 20:12). But the real problem is, what exactly is the content of this honour? What is a person supposed to do? My understanding is that there are three dimensions that constitute the idea of honour. The first content of honour has to do with the things one does to or for them. In Ex. 21:15 the Law reads: 15 "he who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death”. The passage introduces a certain type of comportment that is expected of children with respect to their parents. This is expressed in varied ways. For instance in Lev. 19:32 it reads: "You shall rise up before the grayheaded, and honor the aged. This has to do with consideration of the elderly. It is this same idea which Sirach expands upon in Sir. 3:12-14. He mentions help, kindness and forbearance among the ways one should act towards parents. The second content of hono...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Water, the Spirit and the Voice (cf. Mt. 3:16-17)

This Sunday, the church celebrates the Baptism of the Lord. In St. Matthew’s brief account of the baptism of the Lord, there are three terms used which practically summarize the events described. First, there is the WATER in which the Lord was baptized. Second, there is the SPIRIT which descended like a dove on Jesus. Third, there is the VOICE which declared Jesus as the beloved Son of God.  Each of these terms is theologically charged. In the Old Testament, Water was the first sign of deliverance. The most significant act of Salvation in Israel was the Exodus event. Moses led the people of Israel dry-shod through the waters of the Red Sea (Ex. 14). This act of going through the waters of the Red Sea became also a symbol of what Christians went through in baptism as they also were immersed in water (cf. 1 Cor. 10:1-4). That is why baptism remains for every Christian, the gateway to the life of Grace. As Christ says, “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot...
Post a Comment
Read more