“I come to you because you couldn’t come to me.” Another John Pointing to Jesus
January 16, 2011, Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Isaiah 49:3, 5-61 I Corinthians 1:1-3 John 1:29-34
Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John
Glory to you, Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John
Glory to you, Lord.
The next day John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and exclaimed, “Look! There is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! He is the one I was talking about when I said, `Soon a man far greater than I is coming, who existed long before me!’ I myself did not know who He was; but the very reason why I came baptizing in water was that He might be revealed to Israel.
Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirits come down from heaven like a dove and rest upon Him. I did not know Him myself, but He who sent me to baptize with water told me, `The one upon whom you see the Spirit come down and rest is He who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ Yes, I have seen it myself,” said John, “and I tell you that He is the Son of God.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Introduction
Introduction
Back to Ordinary Time
We are now in the first stretch of Sundays in Ordinary Time in 2011. We will coast along for nine Sundays in this first stretch until Ash Wednesday, March 9, when we will enter into the Extraordinary Time of Lent, in preparation for Easter 2011.
The Baptist’s mission: to point to Christ
This Sunday’s gospel from the evangelist John reflects a puzzlement in the early church: who is greater, Jesus or John the Baptist? Some of the Baptist’s disciples were insisting that John was greater than Jesus. So we see weaving in and out of the New Testament attempts to make it clear that Jesus is greater than the Baptist: When Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth (the Baptist’s mother) Elizabeth bows low before Mary, and the babe in Mary's womb blesses the babe in Elizabeth’s womb, as the greater blesses the lesser. (Lk 1:41) Then Zechariah (the Baptist’s father) will sing in his canticle that his son’s mission is “to go before the Lord, and prepare a path for Him.” (Lk 1:76)
When John grew up, he went on his appointed mission to point to Jesus. He made it clear that he wasn’t the Messiah, but that there would come one whose sandals he was not worthy to untie. (Jn 1:19-21, 27) Then one day when Jesus was passing by, the Baptist pointed to Him exclaiming, "There He is! There He is! There is the Lamb of God! He takes away the sin of the world." (Jn 1:30) Later on when the Baptist’s followers complained that Jesus also was baptizing and everyone was flocking over to Him, John again points to Jesus, saying: “He must increase, and I must decrease.” (Jn 3:30) St. Augustine says that John (who eventually was beheaded) did indeed “decrease by a whole head!” (Mt 14:1-12)
When John grew up, he went on his appointed mission to point to Jesus. He made it clear that he wasn’t the Messiah, but that there would come one whose sandals he was not worthy to untie. (Jn 1:19-21, 27) Then one day when Jesus was passing by, the Baptist pointed to Him exclaiming, "There He is! There He is! There is the Lamb of God! He takes away the sin of the world." (Jn 1:30) Later on when the Baptist’s followers complained that Jesus also was baptizing and everyone was flocking over to Him, John again points to Jesus, saying: “He must increase, and I must decrease.” (Jn 3:30) St. Augustine says that John (who eventually was beheaded) did indeed “decrease by a whole head!” (Mt 14:1-12)
John XXIII -- another great pointer
When Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, Patriarch of Venice, was elected pope in the papal conclave of 1958 the presiding cardinal approached the pope-elect and asked, “Quo nomine vocaberis?” “By what name shall you be called?" Roncalli responded: "My name will be John.“ Roncalli chose to be named after that great precursor whose mission was to point to Jesus. Then this new John the Baptist set out on a pontificate which would singularly point to Jesus, as few pontificates before or after his ever did.
The very next day after his coronation, Good Pope John XXIII sped off through elaborate Vatican gates on a mission to point to Jesus. He visited aging brother priests in nursing homes. He visited inmates in the nearby Regina Coeli Prison along the Tiber. “I come to you,” he told them, “because you couldn’t come to me.” When he celebrated his first Holy Thursday as pope, he revived an ancient custom of the Church. Like Jesus, Pope John with towel in hand bent down to wash the feet of 13 young priests. That rite had fallen into disuse for many centuries, and the disuse itself was symptomatic of an attitude in the institutional church.
The very next day after his coronation, Good Pope John XXIII sped off through elaborate Vatican gates on a mission to point to Jesus. He visited aging brother priests in nursing homes. He visited inmates in the nearby Regina Coeli Prison along the Tiber. “I come to you,” he told them, “because you couldn’t come to me.” When he celebrated his first Holy Thursday as pope, he revived an ancient custom of the Church. Like Jesus, Pope John with towel in hand bent down to wash the feet of 13 young priests. That rite had fallen into disuse for many centuries, and the disuse itself was symptomatic of an attitude in the institutional church.
A council called to point to Jesus
Pope John, who in his own person powerfully pointed to Jesus, summoned the Church (which pointed too much to itself) to do the same. He summoned the Second Vatican Council, and assigned it the task of giving the church institution a much needed course correction, in which Jesus would “increase” and the institution would “decrease.” That would not be an easy task for the council, after centuries of the institution’s addiction to self-preoccupation and self-aggrandizement.
The most important and far-reaching debate of the council called by John took place when it debated the preliminary draft of the council’s most important document, concerning the nature of the Church.[1] Chapter I of the draft was entitled The Mystery of the Church. It declared that the Church is a mystery. `Mystery’ is a rich theological word; it says there’s more here than meets the eye, and consequently all our pat answers or definitions won’t do justice to it. Some bishops, who liked pat answers for everything, weren’t too happy in calling the Church a mystery. They complained: “What will our constituents back home say when we tell them the Church is a mystery and that we don’t have nice neat answers for her anymore?”
The most important and far-reaching debate of the council called by John took place when it debated the preliminary draft of the council’s most important document, concerning the nature of the Church.[1] Chapter I of the draft was entitled The Mystery of the Church. It declared that the Church is a mystery. `Mystery’ is a rich theological word; it says there’s more here than meets the eye, and consequently all our pat answers or definitions won’t do justice to it. Some bishops, who liked pat answers for everything, weren’t too happy in calling the Church a mystery. They complained: “What will our constituents back home say when we tell them the Church is a mystery and that we don’t have nice neat answers for her anymore?”
The Copernican Revolution of Vatican II
Chapter II of the draft was entitled The Hierarchy and Chapter III The People of God. That order which put hierarchy before the people of God bespoke a problem which perennially afflicts the church institution – that of putting the hierarchy before the people of God. That misalignment angered some of the council fathers who rose to protest: “Why is it that when we bishops speak about the Church we always point first to ourselves! We are not the Church; the people of God are the Church. We, the hierarchy, exist for them. That’s the right order.” After a long and stormy debate in the great nave of St. Peters Basilica, the council fathers placed the chapter on The People of God before the chapter on The Hierarchy. That switch came to be called the “Copernican Revolution”[2] of Vatican II.
What’s more, the council fathers made sure that the very first line of the council’s most important document would point not to the Church but to Christ. That very first line reads: “Since Christ [not the Church] is the light of the nations…” That was right order, and it was, indeed, an immense course correction, at least on paper (and paper is always a good start in the life of the Church).
What’s more, the council fathers made sure that the very first line of the council’s most important document would point not to the Church but to Christ. That very first line reads: “Since Christ [not the Church] is the light of the nations…” That was right order, and it was, indeed, an immense course correction, at least on paper (and paper is always a good start in the life of the Church).
Pointing to self or to Christ?
It is not easy for the church institution to maintain that course correction. It is always tempted to fall back on pointing to itself. When Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he issued a 36 page document entitled Dominus Iesus (The Lord Jesus). The document warned that when dealing with Buddhist and Hindus and the like, we must not play down the unique role of Christ. It also warned that when dealing with non-Catholic Christian religions, we must not play down the unique role of the Catholic Church.
The document reflects the long-standing belief that the Catholic Church alone possesses the full truth and that all other faith groups have only elements of truth. That might seem a bit arrogant, but almost all faith traditions believe that they alone possess the entire truth, and they view all other religions as being at least partly deficient. At the end of the day, however, we ask: when is the church institution more effective: when it points to itself, or when like Good Pope John it points to Christ?
The document reflects the long-standing belief that the Catholic Church alone possesses the full truth and that all other faith groups have only elements of truth. That might seem a bit arrogant, but almost all faith traditions believe that they alone possess the entire truth, and they view all other religions as being at least partly deficient. At the end of the day, however, we ask: when is the church institution more effective: when it points to itself, or when like Good Pope John it points to Christ?
A bishop who pointed to Christ
Despite the example of Pope John, and his council’s invitation to the Church to point to Christ, we still have a long way to go. Bishop Kenneth Edward Untener (1937- 2004) served the Diocese of Saginaw from 1980 until his death in 2004. His office was the trunk of his car. He sold the bishop's mansion and proceeded to live in 69 rectories over the next 24 years. With towel in hand, Untener’s first words as bishop to the people of Saginaw were: "My name is Ken, and I will be your waiter for a long, long time.”
1993 was the twenty-fifth anniversary of Pope Paul VI's encyclical letter Humanae vitae (1968), which reaffirmed the Church’s stand against artificial birth control. On that occasion Bishop Untener asked the Church to start a new, honest and open discussion on birth control. The request deeply irritated the Vatican. It was turned down, and `Catholic loyalty’ to the Vatican was firmly advised. The church institution pointed to itself, while. Bp. Untener, a good John the Baptist, pointed to Christ.
1993 was the twenty-fifth anniversary of Pope Paul VI's encyclical letter Humanae vitae (1968), which reaffirmed the Church’s stand against artificial birth control. On that occasion Bishop Untener asked the Church to start a new, honest and open discussion on birth control. The request deeply irritated the Vatican. It was turned down, and `Catholic loyalty’ to the Vatican was firmly advised. The church institution pointed to itself, while. Bp. Untener, a good John the Baptist, pointed to Christ.
Another bishop who pointed to Christ
Bishop Thomas John Gumbleton (b. 1930), retired auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Detroit, has a long history of social justice and was the founding president of Pax Christi USA (the US branch of the international Catholic peace movement). He was also president of Bread for the World (an interfaith organization that fights world hunger). In a letter to America magazine (Nov. 20, 1963) he wrote, "I can vouch for the fact that very many bishops share the same conviction [that not every contraceptive act is intrinsically evil]. However, sadly enough, fewer and fewer are willing to say this publicly.” What’s more, though Pope John Paul II spoke definitively against the ordination of women, Gumbleton said, “Priestesses will inevitably come. Already, female parochial administrators are proving their competency and laying the groundwork for the ordination of women.”
Those positions irritated the Vatican, and when Bp. Gumbleton (still in good health) petitioned the Vatican for permission to stay on as bishop beyond his 75th year, the canonical age for retirement (often waived for a good reason) his petition was refused with e-mail speed. Again, the church institution pointed to itself, while Bp. Gumbleton, a good John the Baptist, pointed to Christ.
Those positions irritated the Vatican, and when Bp. Gumbleton (still in good health) petitioned the Vatican for permission to stay on as bishop beyond his 75th year, the canonical age for retirement (often waived for a good reason) his petition was refused with e-mail speed. Again, the church institution pointed to itself, while Bp. Gumbleton, a good John the Baptist, pointed to Christ.
Conclusion
The institution at its best
The church institution is at its best when, like Jesus and Bishop Untener with towel in hand, it tells God’s people, “I will be your waiter for a long, long time!”
[1] The two opening words of the Latin document is Lumen Gentium (Light of the nations).
[2] The Copernican revolution: the sun doesn’t revolve around the earth; the earth revolves around the sun.
[1] The two opening words of the Latin document is Lumen Gentium (Light of the nations).
[2] The Copernican revolution: the sun doesn’t revolve around the earth; the earth revolves around the sun.
