Isaiah 35:1-6, 10 / James 5:7-10 / Matthew 11:2-11
Life is like a cycle with its ups and downs. And if life is like a cycle, then nothing is stable in the sense that life is not a straight line.
Because if life is a straight line, then it may seem that there is no more life. So in the cycle of life we may find ourselves sometimes at the upper half and sometimes at the lower half.
So, one month ago, we remember our departed loved ones. This month we prepare for the celebration of birth and new life.
Only last month we were complaining how hot and dry it was, and one month later we are saying how cold and wet it is.
One month ago, the students were stressed out by their exams. And one month later, they are posting photos of places that they are having holidays.
So life is indeed like a cycle of ups and downs, and these cycles can be so quick, such that it can be said that what a difference a day makes, or what a difference a week makes, or what a difference a month makes.
And in the gospel, we can also see how quickly things can change.
Just last week, we heard of John the Baptist preaching and baptizing in the wide open spaces of the wilderness.
He was on fire as he called the people to repentance, spoke against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Sadducees. He was like thunder and lightning.
But in this week’s gospel, we see a very different picture of John the Baptist. Reduced to the shackles and darkness of his prison cell, he was disturbed by doubts.
Still he managed to contact his disciples and sent them to ask Jesus this question: Are you the one who is to come, or have we got to wait for someone else?
John the Baptist had expected the one to come to be serious business. If he was thunder and lightning, then he expected the one to come to be like fire and brimstone.
He thought that the one who is to come would be like an axe that would chop down trees bearing rotten fruit and a winnowing fan that will gather the chaff and throw them into the fire that will never go out.
But in the darkness of the prison, he was disturbed and he doubted. So that Jesus, is he or is he not the one?
Maybe it was a question of expectations, and John the Baptist did not expect Jesus to be like that.
To that question of John the Baptist, Jesus did not give a direct answer. Rather, he replied with this: Go back and tell John what you hear and see – the blind see again, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life and the Good News is proclaimed to the poor. And happy is the man who does not lose faith in me.
That’s the same with us too. When people or situations go against our expectations, we too get disturbed.
We too need to see and hear so that we can understand the reality and not what we think or expect it to be.
A teenage boy and his father got into a train and the boy took the window seat and he seems to be enjoying the travel and the nature, as if he is seeing it for the first time.
Once the train started moving, the boy started shouting at what he was seeing outside the window.
“Dad, see these trees are moving to the back,” His father just gave a smile.
A young couple sitting nearby this boy looked at his childlike behaviour and started talking between themselves about that boy.
Suddenly, again the boy called his father with an excitement and said, “Dad, see the clouds are running with us.” Again the dad smiled and kept quiet.
The young couple couldn’t understand why this boy was talking like this, and so they asked his father who is sitting nearby, “Why don’t you take your son to a hospital to have a good check-up?”
The father gave a smile and replied, “We just came from the hospital.” And he also added that his son was blind from the birth, and he just got his eyes yesterday and this is the first time he is seeing the world. The young couple was stumped when they heard that.
So we may have our expectations in life. We may expect life to be quiet and comfortable, like the young couple in the train.
But when we get disturbed, let us see and hear what God is showing and telling us.
In the cycle of life, a dark disturbance comes before a bright revelation.
That is the cycle of life. So when we get disturbed, let us not fret and complain.
Because in the cycle of life, a disturbance comes before a revelation.
Let us see and let us hear with open hearts and the Good News will be revealed to us.