Reflection on the Readings

An old Cherokee chief once passed on wisdom to his grandson about the battle that goes on inside all of us.
He said, “My son, the battle is between two wolves.
One wolf is evil.
It is Anger, Sorrow, Regret, Greed, Arrogance, Self-pity, Guilt, Resentment, Inferiority, Dishonesty, False Pride.
The other wolf is good.
It is Joy, Peace, Love, Hope, Humility, Kindness, Empathy, Generosity, Truth, Compassion, and Faith.”
After the grandson had thought about it, he asked his grandfather, “so grandpa, which wolf wins?” The grandfather answered, “The one you feed.”

Something that I admire immensely about John the Baptist is that he fearlessly denounced evil wherever he found it.

• If Herod the king sinned by contracting an evil and unlawful marriage, John rebuked him.
• If the Sadducees and Pharisees, religious leaders, the churchmen of their day, were sunk in ritualistic formalism, John never hesitated to say so.
• If the ordinary people were living lives which were unaware of God, John would tell them so.

Whenever John saw evil – in the state, in the Church, in the crowd – he fearlessly rebuked it. He was like a light which lit up the dark places; he was like wind which stirred up the complacent believer while at the same time breathing new life into them – and it was for this reason why many of his day hated him.

There is still a place in the Christian message today for warning and denunciations as hard as it may be to hear. “The truth,” said the Greek Philosopher Diogenes, “is like the light to sore eyes. He who never offended anyone, never did anyone any good.”

Yet John’s message is not a mere negative denunciation; it’s a positive building-up of the moral standards of God. But now a-days, like in John the Baptist’s time, we don’t like to hear about God’s standards since ours serve us just fine! But its super important to note that while John the Baptist did indeed point the finger of moral demand and repentance to others, he never forgot an important truth: when one points a finger at another, 3 fingers point back to you.

Friends, today’s invitation to repentance is directed towards the individual. To not accept John the Baptist’s invitation to repent means missing a huge opportunity. You see, John the Baptist not only denounced people for what they had done; he summoned them to what they ought to do.

He is a voice calling us to higher things.
A voice reminding us to feed the right wolf.

Fr. David C. Santos, Pastor