Friday of
the 2nd Week of Advent
Memorial of
Saint Lucy
December 13, 2013 8:30am
Sometimes it seems that the
entire world, probably including us, has a bad case of skepticism and cynicism.
We’ve been fooled too many times
and had too many promises broken.
Maybe it was the fine print on
the warranty on a car.
Maybe it was a loophole in a
property insurance policy.
Maybe it was an elected
politician or church leader who broke our trust.
Generally speaking, we have a
fair amount of skepticism and cynicism and approach things in a rather guarded
way.
This is something like the people
Jesus is talking to in today’s gospel.
These people have heard the
preaching of John the Baptist and of Jesus and they are skeptical of both of
them.
They find John too harsh and
judgmental.
They find Jesus too nice to be
taken seriously.
Jesus challenges them and us to
look deeper than our first impressions and to control our skepticism.
He speaks about wisdom being
vindicated.
He is saying that the wise person
realizes that good exists within everyone and tries to call it forth and bring
it out of each person.
I think we can say that this is
what Advent is all about.
It is about seeing and calling
forth and lifting up the goodness in everyone because that is how God comes
more fully into the world today.
And his coming into the world is
what Advent in all about.
I came across a statement by a
famous Archbishop in Brazil, Archbishop Dom Helder Camera.
This man was a champion of the
poor and the persecuted.
He once said: “Become an expert in the art of discovering
the good in every person.
No one is entirely bad.
Become an expert in the art of finding the truthful core in views of
every kind.
The human mind abhors total error.”
They are wise words and a good
lesson to take with us today.
