Do You See John the Baptist Today? 今天你看到洗者若翰嗎？

Second Advent Sunday, Year B
Theme: Do You See John the Baptist Today? 今天你看到洗者若翰嗎？

Christians have acquired a perspective of the world different from the mundane secular way because of their faith in Lord Jesus Christ. While a commercial society like Hong Kong encourages people to be hardworking and persuade her citizens that effort pays, Christianity tells followers of Christ to leave everything in God’s hand because He shall provide (Genesis 22:8). Modern societies advocate utilitarianism and cost-benefit-analysis while Christ teaches poverty (Luke 6:20b; Matthew 5:3); the societies ambition while Christ meekness (5:5) etc. Everybody agrees that no man is an island. All of us need to live in a social network. While most people prefer building networks with likeable, powerful and wealthy people, Jesus Christ advises people to see and seek Him among the needy and the socially marginalized (25:40)! In short, secular worldviews see not human beings but carbon based objects for exploitation. In contrast, Christianity sees the dignified human beings in their souls.

As we are still in the first stage of Advent season in which we meditate on the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, in other words, the end of the world, we are expecting Christ the Universal King to restore and renew this sin-infested world. The first reading today reassures us that the end of the world is a time of consolation. The Lord God shall comfort us, instead of destroying us in His second coming. “Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and proclaim to her servitude has ended, that her guilt is expiated, that she has received from the hand of the Lord double for all her sins” (Isaiah 40:1-2). Indeed, we seem to have increased our benefits when we are selfish and exploit others but we shall suffer all the consequences of sinning in the future. The punishment may have already begun the moment we sin. Most likely, we start to notice only years or even decades later that we are repaying the debts! By then, we might have repaid more than double the damages we had made. We would have repented earlier if we had known the extent of damages we caused in sinning. Therefore, the earlier we repent the better. Knowing this is comforting enough for even the worst sinner of the world who used to believing that he is irredeemable! No! The good news is that our God wants none of this. On an individual level, He “wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). On a broader level, “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:19). Thus, the end time is comforting for followers of Christ.

In order to receive this gospel of consolation and reconciliation, people must prepare their hearts. This was where John the Baptist came in. He came to prepare the hearts of the Jews who were anticipating a liberator, the Messiah who would deliver them from the colonial Roman rule. No, God has a grander plan. Isaiah foretold the mission of the Baptist with this oracle, “Every valley shall be lifted up, every mountain and hill made low; the rugged land shall be a plain, the rough country a broad valley” (Isaiah 40:4). The gospel of Mark summarizes those high, low, rugged and rough qualities into one sentence, the mission statement of the Baptist, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight His paths” (Mark 1:3b). The gospel continues to describe his message. “John the Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (1:4). This message is simple: Repent and your sins will be forgiven! To repent means to lift yourself up out of your comfort zones, to make low your arrogance, to become simple like powerless children instead of being calculating like a strategist; and lastly to maintain a meek attitude instead of an imposing stance towards others to get things done in your way. Not only shall life be easier but you shall obtain more graces from the Lord God.

Let’s take a look at the image of John the Baptist and how effective it is, “John was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He fed on locusts and wild honey” (1:6). This image is unique. We are unable to locate any similar counterpart in the Old Testament. This unique image of “A voice of one crying out in the wilderness” (1:3a) might portray in the hearts of contemporary Jews a righteous prophet who was fearless in criticising Herod Antipas. However, this image does not have the same effect on modern readers. We can only find a homeless self-murmuring stinking beggar listlessly wandering in the city who does not attract faithful disciples but thugs of children to stone him. What can we make out of such a Baptist in societies like Hong Kong? If Pope Francis is right is exhorting us to learn from the poor and that the poor evangelize us, what can we learn from those homeless Baptists in Hong Kong?

It is superficial and tempting to see the pitiful homeless as an accusation against the powerful and the wealthy in the society; a protest against the collusion of civil-servants with merchants, of oppressive as well as exploitative policies against the minorities like what John the Baptist accused Herod Antipas against his setting a bad example. Yes, as spokepersons of God, Christians have the responsibility to criticize the evils they see. However, it is not as shallow as such. We should never bark aloud the evils of the powerful and wealthy but forget to look at the positive teachings of the merciful Lord. So, let us survey deeper what theology of poverty Pope Francis distills from the Scriptures for us.

1. In 2013, eight months after being elected Pope, Francis promolgated his first Apostolic Exhortation in which he says, “I want a Church which is poor and for the poor. They have much to teach us … We need to let ourselves be evangelized by them. The new evangelization is an invitation to acknowledge the saving power at work in their lives and to put them at the centre of the Church’s pilgrim way” (Evangelii Gaudium, #198). What can we learn from the poor? Pope Francis elaborated this point in subsequent messages issued on the World Day of the Poor.
2. “Let us welcome them [the poor] as honoured guests at our table; they can be teachers who help us live the faith more consistently. With their trust and readiness to receive help, they show us in a quiet and often joyful way, how essential it is to live simply and to abandon ourselves to God’s providence” (2017 Message, par. 7). Indeed, most of our sins are sins of insistence of our autonomy and rejections of God’s providence. Are we able to see how the poor live more correctly in the sight of God?
3. “Christ’s disciples … are called to honour the poor and to give them precedence, out of the conviction that they are a true presence of Jesus in our midst” (2018 Message, par. 7). Pope Francis reaffirms once more the fundamental stance of the Church: option for the poor.
4. “The poor are persons to be encountered; they are lonely, young and old, to be invited to our homes to share a meal; men, women and children who look for a friendly word. The poor save us because they enable us to encournter the face of Jesus Christ” (2019 Message, par. 9). This is the very challenge. Do we see the face of Christ in the poor?
5. “The freedom bestowed through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ makes us individually responsible for serving others, especially the weakest. This is not an option, but rather a sign of authenticity of the faith we profess” (2020 Message, par. 8). Faith in Christ gains us freedom. With freedom, we became responsible for our words and deeds. Here lies our freedom. Either we choose to help the needy, making our faith an authentic faith, or we choose not to extend a helping hand, making ourselves contradictory persons. We begin seeing more concrete examples.
6. “The poor … know well how to respond with generosity … The poor often teach us about solidarity and sharing … They retain the dignity of God’s children that nothing and no one can take away from them” (2021 Message, par. 6). The poor teach us solidarity and sharing. Their dignity of God’s children cannot be denied.
7. “The sense of weakness and limitation that we have experienced in these recent years, and now the tragedy of the war with its global repercussions, must teach us one crucial thing: we are not in this world merely to survive, but to live a dignified and happy life … Encountering the poor enables us to put an end to many of our anxieties and empty fears, and to arrive at what truly matters in life, the treasue that no one can steal from us: true and gratuitous love. The poor, before being the object of our almsgiving are people who can help set us free from the snares of anxiety and superficiality” (2022 Message, par. 8). We are entitled to a dignified and happy life which the poor can teach us.
8. “The Book of Tobit teaches us to be realistic and practical in whatever we do with and for the poor. This is a mtatter of justice; it requires us to seek out and find one another, in order to foster the harmony needed for the community to feel itself as such. Caring for the poor is more than simply a matter of hasty hand-out; it calls for reestablishing the just interpersonal relationships that poverty harms” (2023 Message, par. 8). Therefore, caring for the poor is a matter of justice which Christianity insists.

Beloved brethren! We don’t need to talk theology fluently. What we need to do is to seek out the poor and seal a relationship with them. Amen.
God bless!

Before we finish, let us enjoy some timely Handel music.

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2020 Reflection
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