Memorial of Saint John of the Cross

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/121411.cfm

"Go and tell John what you have seen and heard:
the blind regain their sight,
the lame walk,
lepers are cleansed,
the deaf hear, the dead are raised,
the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. 
And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me."

In the VA hospital I carry a manual of liturgical prayers for the sick and dying. It  contains the rites for Communion to the Sick, Anointing, Viaticum, The Commendation of the Dying, and prayers for the dead. Among  the gospel readings for that ministry, today's gospel is highly recommended. The passage describes not only the spectacular events of Jesus' healing but also the anxiety that John the Baptist felt as he was imprisoned in Herod's dungeon. 

We should note that John's question is asked twice: once when he sends his messengers to Jesus and a second time when they arrive. Likewise, the answer is given twice: once when the Evangelist tells us what Jesus was doing, and again when Jesus replies. Repetition underlines the importance of the question and the answer for our faith. 

However, the denouement is given only once: "And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me."

John, like all the disciples of Jesus, is waiting for the Lord to make his claim to Messiahship and to take his rightful throne. Especially because he is trapped in a fatal situation, he wants to hear from his cousin. So Jesus' reply intends both to reassure and to gently remind John to "have faith in me." 


This waiting for the kingdom of God is serious business. It is the very life of the Christian and it seems to go on forever. During the earliest days of the Church, as the scriptures attest, people expected the Lord to reappear on the clouds of heaven. Beginning with the second millennium and the writings of Joachim of Fiore, every generation has contained at least some believers who fully expected to see the Judgement Day before they died. In the past year we have seen a world-wide billboard campaign announcing the End of the World, which was scheduled for May 21 and again on October 21. It didn't happen. Not for most of us anyway. 


Some people will "take offense" at the delay of the Lord's day. They will suppose this waiting is some kind of fools' game manufactured by power-hungry clerics or greedy shysters. 


I see the waiting as an essential element of our being Christian; and, on a deeper level, of our human nature. I am not familiar enough with world religions to know about those who share our sense of waiting. So I will posit that Revelation itself teaches us of this key to our human vocation. We know that the human creature has not evolved significantly in over a million years, but most of those wonderful people could not know the divine roots of their anxiety. They certainly must  have shared our eagerness for justice, mercy, prosperity, security, compassion and so forth; but they could not know that God has also promised us these blessings. That was reserved for "these last days." 

In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets;in these last days, he spoke to us through a son... (Hebrews 1:1)

Our calling is to wait on the mercy of God, and to prove ourselves worthy of it when That 
Day arrives. Our calling also is to announce this promise to everyone who will listen. There are moments when some of us find the waiting unbearable and we try to force God's hand, even going so far as to name the date! That's embarrassing for the rest of us, but it serves to remind the world that the Day of the Lord will come. It does not delay, though some consider it delay

But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard “delay,” but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a mighty roar and the elements will be dissolved by fire, and the earth and everything done on it will be found out. (2 Peter 8-10)