god chooses the nobodies - 2nd sun of advent C 2015

Our gospel begins with a list of the who’s who of the year 27 AD. First on the list is Tiberius Caesar who was on his 15^th year as emperor of the Roman Empire, then Pontius Pilate who was governor of Judea, then Herod who was tetrarch of Galilee, also mentioned was his brother Philip who was tetrarch of Ituraea and Trachonitis, also Lysanias who was tetrarch of Abilene, and lastly Annas and Caiaphas who were high priests.  We have here a list of the VIP’s or very important persons around this time.

Of the 4 gospels only Luke claims having done extensive research.  And indeed most scholars agree that his is the most scholarly and historical gospel.  However, after mentioning the big names of this period and the celebrities of his time, Luke the historian, chose to write instead the story of a nobody who was preaching in the wilderness, where nobody goes.  This is where the title historian becomes off tangent.  Why would a historian write about nobody who was preaching in the wilderness where nobody goes?  Why didn’t he write about Pontius Pilate, or Tiberius Caesar like the other historians of his time?  Why report about what had happened in the wilderness where nothing worth mentioning usually happens there?

Why?  Because Luke says that God’s word came to John – God’s word came to John.  It did not come to the tetrarch of Galilee.  It did not come to the high priests Annas and Caiphas?  The word of God came instead to a nobody named John who was preaching in the wilderness where nobody usually goes.  It was to John and not to the emperor, it was to John and not to any celebrity that God’s word came.

Examine the gospel of Luke and it is filled with what the world considers insignificant – John the Baptist, Mary the unwed mother, Joseph who did not even speak a word, Elizabeth, the barren wife, Zechariah, a minor insignificant priest, and some insignificant shepherds.  Even the addresses are insignificant - Nazareth, hill country of Judea, wilderness - they are not prominent addresses.   And yet these are people and places which God chose in order to do his work. God chose John the Baptist, a nobody in order to prepare the way for his Son to live among us. God chose a nobody so that he could do the work he had promised to do since man and woman fell from grace.

Today is family day.  And it is a good occasion to be reminded of how God chooses his instrument, that since the beginning God chose to work with those whom the world easily ignores, that since the beginning God chose to work with what the world belittles. 

For instance, today it would seem that the world has created a mentality which honors women more for their work outside the home than for their work within the family.  We have no nobel prize for mothers, no Magsaysay awardees for child rearing.  Christianne Amanpour of CNN when asked about how she balanced career as a foreign correspondent and motherhood, acknowledged that, “Either you're not going to be good enough at your profession or you're not going to be a good enough parent. And something's going to suffer.” I have seen my mother balance career and parenting – mothers can do everything, but they can’t just do it all of the time as Madeleine Albright observed – she was a diplomat and a mother.  And so the big question is what is that something that’s going to suffer?  What is that something that is usually allowed to give way?

Today too cultural and social conditions encourage fathers to be less involved especially in the work of educating the children.  And yet we know now that fathers have a unique and irreplaceable importance in the life of their children, acknowledging for example the psychological and moral imbalance created in the child because of the long and frequent absences of fathers.  And yet despite acknowledging their importance, fathers are the most ignored group in terms of providing them the know-how in shepherding their children through their formative years. 

When Mark Zuckerberg announced in Facebook that he was taking a two months paternity leave he wrote, “Studies show that when working parents take time to be with their newborns, outcomes are better for their children and families.” And yet it is said that in companies that have paternity leave only 12 percent of fathers are taking it.

Today in this second Sunday of Advent we are made aware of the choices of God as to the instruments he uses to bring about his marvelous works in the world.  God is eager to use our talents and abilities and gifts to change the world, even in those which seem small and ignored as insignificant.  We may not hold any particularly important position, we don’t have to be celebrities or rulers or rich and powerful, yet God may be eager to use us to do wonderful things in this world. 

This family day you may not find yourself in the list of the who’s who of Iloilo.  IT is OK.  But it would be a disaster if you are not in the list of the who’s who of your children.