The Scandal of God's Gentle Style
Michiel Peeters - Last week, we met John the Baptist, whose task it was to awaken the hearts of his fellow men and women, so that they could intercept the exceptional presence among them. We learnt that a vast number of people went to see John, even though he would scold them, because they felt what he said was true.
Today, Jesus helps those listening to him to understand their own experience with John the Baptist: “What did you go out to the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? [Something lacking value or consistency? Then you wouldn’t have gone all the way into the desert!] Then what did you go out to see? Someone dressed in fine clothing? [Someone successful, in the world’s eyes? In that case you wouldn’t have gone to the desert either, for] those who wear fine clothing are in royal palaces.
Then why did you go out? To see a prophet? [Someone who says what’s true, who has the task to confront the people with the truth?] Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written: Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way before you,” and he will prepare it by awakening the hearts of men. For, as saint John Henry Newman said: “Whereas [mere preparedness of the hart] proves nothing, mere facts persuade no one; [preparedness of the heart] is to fact, as the soul to the body; mere [expectations] have no force, but mere facts have no warmth.” For evidence to be truly heard, seen, and accepted, the heart must be alive.
Otherwise, we “may indeed look, but not perceive, and may indeed listen, but not understand.” To be convinced by a present presence, what is basic is conversion. John had tried to provoke this conversion, and now he had been thrown into prison. The message he sends from jail to Jesus gives us a glimpse that even the prophet (and all of us are called to be prophets!) mustgo the same road of verification as everybody else.
After having prophesied to the people and pointed to Jesus, John now asks the same Jesus: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” Maybe he is confused because of what Pope Benedict called “God’s gentle style of acting”? “It is part of the mystery of God that He acts so gently, that He only gradually builds up His history within the great history of mankind; that He becomes man and so can be overlooked by His contemporaries and by the decisive forces within history.”
Maybe even John had imagined the Messiah as a great leader. In contrast, Jesus is different, “simply human,” exceptionally human. Therefore, Jesus says: “Blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.” At the same time, he indicates to John—and to us—the signs by which one can recognize the truly exceptional, even if it comes in a form so human, so gentle, one could easily overlook it. “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.”
In this presence, people gain new life. Not every presence can bring this about, can it? Therefore, Jesus says: “Among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist [John had the greatest task assigned to any human: to prepare the hearts of men to recognize the presence]; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he [the least who stays in my presence, and recognizes its exceptionality through what it brings about, has a greater experience than even John the Baptist].”
This is the method that leads us to the certainty of the exceptionality of Christ’s presence among us: acknowledging, with awakened hearts, what we hear and see.
0251214 3rd Sunday of Advent A (Mt 11:2–11)
(Homily by Fr Michiel Peeters, Tilburg University Chaplaincy)
