12/13/2019 6:51:22 AM
Thought Of the Day
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The wisdom of God
Saint John the Baptist was separated from the world. He was a Nazarite (Lk 1:15; Nb 6:2). He went out from the world, and placed himself over against it... and called it to repentance. Then went out all Jerusalem to him into the desert (Mk 3:5), and he confronted it face to face. But in his teaching he spoke of One who should come to them and speak to them in a far different way. He should not separate Himself from them, He should not display Himself as some higher being, but as their brother, as of their flesh and of their bones, as one among many brethren, as one of the multitude and amidst them; nay, He was among them already: "There hath stood in the midst of you, whom you know not" (Jn 1:26)... At length Jesus begins to disclose Himself and to manifest His glory in miracles; but where? At a marriage feast... And how? in adding to the wine... Now compare this with what He says in St. Matthew's Gospel of Himself: "John came neither eating nor drinking—The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say: Behold a man that is a glutton and wine-drinker." John might be hated, but he was respected; Jesus was despised... This was, O dear Lord, because Thou so lovest this human nature which Thou hast created. Thou didst not love us merely as Thy creatures, the work of Thy hands, but as men. Thou lovest all, for Thou hast created all; but Thou lovest man more than all. How is it, Lord, that this should be? What is there in man, above others? "What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?" (Ps 8,5)... Thou didst not take on Thee an angelic nature when Thou didst manifest Thyself for our salvation, so too Thou wouldest not come in any shape or capacity or office which was above the course of ordinary human life—not as a Nazarene, not as a Levitical priest, not as a monk, not as a hermit, but in the fulness and exactness of that human nature which so much Thou lovest... in that very flesh which had fallen in Adam, and with all our infirmities, all our feelings and sympathies, sin excepted.