Friday, December 16, 2011
John 5:33-36

I'm not finding as easy access to this one as many in this past Advent season. I'm reminded of Father Shane yesterday saying that because it was only my mom, Kelly, and me sitting there, he could just say the crazy things he had thought of for his homily. I am lucky enough for that to always be true. My audience is small, and it likes enough of what I've written to give me a pass on lackluster or wilder entries.

And I've set the precedent often enough of asking questions when I have no idea what's up with the gospel. I don't know what Jesus could mean by "I do not accept testimony from human beings" except to set Himself apart from John. His first move in this gospel of setting Himself up as something fundamentally different from John, the Last Prophet of the Old Testament. Jesus wasn't a prophet come down to witness to us - He was a beloved Son of God sent to negotiate a new relationship with mankind. To wipe away all that was troubled in our world since Eden and reforge the connection we lost.

We'd been getting by on prophets - on occasional shows of God's presence like deliverance from oppression or punishment for excesses to keep us from getting too far off track. We'd be satisfied with the occasional soaking wet altar bursting into flames miraculously or great one among us ascending into heaven in a fiery chariot. For awhile we were content to bask in their lights - and the last to let us bask in the light was John.

We didn't even know that it was night.

The Son was rising, and of course we were blinded - the only thing we had known was the lantern like the ten (or whatever the number is) women waiting for the bridegroom. We clustered around bits of light - and some of us still find that more comfortable than the blazing daylight and tuck themselves away inside. But now we can step outside and the sunshine is all around us.

We have the literal Presence of God available daily. Every day, the Son rises. All those who were content to bask in the light of the likes of John longed to see this day. To see the Son rise. The Break of Day.

We can dare to stand in the light. And we are more responsible for the world around us, because suddenly we can see it clearly. It isn't a precarious candle that shows us God's light in our lives now. Whatever happens to the ending of the world, God is truly Present in our lives, in our world, in our hearts. It will never be night like that again. All the darkness is only the Light being hidden or rejected. It is always there. He is always there.