discovering something new - jan. 3 2018

A day after the start of the new year our responsorial psalm invites us to sing a new song.  Actually since December 8 and throughout the season of Christmas we are invited to sing a new song.  This is not to be taken literally in the sense that we’re going to compose and learn a new song but a new song has to be sung because we are starting something new, or should we say God is starting something new not just in our world but in our lives.  What is that something new which the psalm is inviting us to start or allow God to start in us? 

Listen deep in your heart – what is that something new which God through our responsorial psalm today is calling us to start?  What is that good which God is inviting us to take up and start working on?  New Years are times when we make resolutions, and we should use occasions such as this to prod ourselves to do something, even if it is just something small for a start.  But New Year can also be a time to allow second, third or even fourth chances, to start again and to never give up on the good.  In the letter to the Galatians St. Paul encourages Christians to “never grow weary of doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not give up.”

Our gospel today is inviting us to look up to John the Baptist.  Remember Jesus once called John the Baptist the greatest among the prophets, and the greatest among those born of woman.  John’s greatness lies in his humility.  John was humble.  He knows where his place is. He knows the truth about himself and the truth about God.  In fact that is what humility means – to accept the truth about ourselves.  He is not the messiah, he said.  There is one greater than me, he would insist. 

Every good starts with humility. Humility means accepting our own reality.  We cannot sing a new song without acknowledging our reality, and that includes our weakness, our faults, our failures and most especially the good, the possibility for good that is present in each one of us. 

John the Baptist says I am not the Christ, I am not the messiah, I am not the savior of the world.  At the same time he acknowledges too that he is the voice in the wilderness to encourage people to prepare a straight path for the Lord.

The humility of John acknowledges who he is not and what he cannot do or become, but it also acknowledges who he is and his real and vital role in the community.