Year A – Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

In the liturgical calendar, we are back to the ordinary time. But in our gospel reading there is an attempt to make the liturgy of today special. Perhaps it is just to remind us that every Eucharistic celebration is special! As we are in Year A, we should have been listening to the Gospel of Matthew. But our gospel text for today came from the Gospel of John, as is the case every year on the 2nd Sunday in ordinary time. The liturgy of the 2nd Sunday invites us once again to focus on the figure of John the Baptist as if to bridge the season of Advent and Christmas with the rest of the year. What can we learn from John the Baptist? John invites us to search for and fulfil our own space in the universe.

We are created by God, for God. Understanding this truth and realizing it might take a long time, even a life-time. For John, his first moment of insight was when he was still in the womb of his mother: “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb” (Lk 1:41). This encounter with the Son of God was, for John, something unconscious and mediated only by his mother. But he was not complacent with this experience. For many of us, our own first encounters with God would have been unconscious and mediated by our parents. And we shouldn’t be complacent with this.

John’s parents might have had an understanding of the mission of the son of their old age. With all the divine intervention his father had had, he was able to express this: “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways” (Lk 1:76). Even in our lives, by and by we begin to understand the purpose of our own lives. When we have understood our mission we are happy, we experience energy, creativity. Unfortunately, we also come across so many talented people, and apparently successful people, who are not happy in their life. They seem restless and unsatisfied with life. Perhaps they find themselves in the wrong place. How sad?

On the other hand, John the Baptist had a clear understanding of his mission in life. He knew why he was born during that particular time in human history and in that particular place in the universe. “The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day he appeared publicly to Israel” (Lk 1:80). His waiting ends when “the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,” and saying: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight” (Lk 3:3-4).

Some of us are tempted to be more than what we are meant to be. We push ourselves too much; we fight; and we get frustrated. John the Baptist didn’t want to be more than the “voice crying in the wilderness” (Jn 1:23); he had chances to declare himself as the messiah (Lk 3:15); but he would prefer to say, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal” (Jn 1:26-27).

And when at last Jesus appears on the scene, John recognizes him, and points him out as the Lamb of God. Now he can exist. His full-life will be crowned with a martyr’s death. It is the culmination of his prophetic role in challenging the powers that be. We may not be called to witness to Christ by our death. But surely we are called to live our lives fully witnessing to Him. And this we do by finding our space in the universe. We are called to turn that ordinary space into something extraordinary.