Commit - “Burn the Boats”…..Its all or nothing - Be that voice

Today at Holy Mass we hear Jesus talk about John the Baptist…….In his description of John to the people…Jesus says something I believe to be interesting……”From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent are taking it by force. All the prophets and the law prophesied up to the time of John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah, the one who is to come. Whoever has ears ought to hear.”……..John was not having it as we say in New Jersey!…..He was a radical man who spoke plain truth…….Notice what Jesus said about John today……”if you are willing to accept it”………So that is the question for us today……Are we “willing to accept” the Truth?….Jesus is the Truth - Do we “water his words down”?….John the Baptist did not…..He was a plain spoken man……He did not care about “being invited to the party”……Do we?…..What holds us back from speaking and living the Truth?……..What do you think would happen if a John the Baptist figure came amongst the Catholic Church today? - Would he be banished?……If you believe he would be - Then we all must ponder deeply in our own hearts our own personal commitment to God and his Church - Do we really believe what we say we believe?……Jesus was not a man of half-measure, nor was John the Baptist….And frankly, neither should we as Catholics today in the pews….To me, its all or nothing……I am not interested in “half-hearted watered down" Catholicism….I did not give my life to worldly church…….When the Church operates the way it was ordained too, it is like a thunderbolt crashing upon the earth…. Be that thunderbolt! - Remember - Its all or nothing!

“Let the clouds rain down the Just One, and the earth bring forth a Savior”

Jesus calls each of us by name - Its up to us to slow down and listen…..I remember many years ago on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a group of Missionaries of Charity sisters were making their final vows as fully professed sisters in the city of Kolkata…..The Mass was in the late afternoon and as the sisters, two by two walked up to the altar to complete their formation and enter for life a new and radical chapter, the Church bells were ringing against the noise of the city…..As I sat in that Church I thought to myself……What a commitment these women were making and the bells ringing against the madness of the city was very symbolic of what their new life as fully professed sisters would be like…..The Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by Mother Teresa are a radical sign in many ways - They are a contradiction to the world - Something that makes the world stop and ponder how it operates and what it considers as “normal”…The Missionaries of Charity renounce just about everything for the Kingdom of God - They live on Divine Providence - They are a living witness to the world of what is to come….All this came to my mind as I watched these young women make this life long commitment in that Church many years ago……Now for some reality - Our world today does not “blink” at lukewarm Catholicism…..In fact, it is outright mocked and ignored…However, what the Missionaries of Charity bring forth is something all together different…..Such a witness of what it means to be Catholic can not be ignored….Just as John the Baptist could not be ignored…..We as Catholics in the pews must make a decision…Our world today desperately needs to be “convinced” that Jesus is real and that a Sacramental life is not "an option" but the way forward - Why” - Because Christ is the only solution and the Sacraments are the “medicine” for a broken world, which “thirsts” for answers and a cure for its ills…….But how will the world be convinced of this reality?…….This will only happen when the faithful fully commit…….Jesus addresses the importance of this type of witness for us in the pages of Scripture……..“I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, ‘I am rich and affluent and have no need of anything,’ and yet do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked”…….Its time to realize that our world today is as Jesus says it is….”wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked”….And a “lukewarm” Catholic response to this reality is not going to cut it!

“I will open up rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the broad valleys; I will turn the desert into a marshland, and the dry ground into springs of water. I will plant in the desert the cedar, acacia, myrtle, and olive; I will set in the wasteland the cypress, together with the plane tree and the pine, That all may see and know, observe and understand, That the hand of the LORD has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.”

We are told today at Mass in the Gospel by Jesus that….“Among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”…......Now for a few questions - Are we interested in what John the Baptist had to say?…....If John the Baptist showed up in your parish - Would we ask him to leave?………If we as Catholics are to be the “salt and light” we were called to be, maybe its time to model our life more upon the life of John the Baptist, minus the camel haired shirt and the locust and honey diet!……Catholic tradition refers to John and James, two of the first twelve apostle as “The Sons of Thunder”…….Maybe it’s time for a little thunder of our own?………..John the Baptist was a "voice that cried out in the desert”…..Our world today needs such a voice…..If such a voice does not come from the Catholic Church - Who then will do it?…….Commit - “Burn the Boats”…..Its all or nothing - Be that voice………………….JMJ

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