2nd Sunday of Advent 9.12.07 Standards of holiness
The figure of John the Baptist is both appealing and repelling. He is appealing because fascinating. Here is someone who obviously takes seriously what he does.
Even Herod, whom John was attacking for living in adultery, liked to hear him speak.
It reminds me of the old days when people would crowd churches at parish missions, to be told by a fiery preacher there was a good chance they would go to hell.
What did you go out into the desert to hear? Someone that would tell you there is no sin; that everyone goes to heaven; that life is easy and you should go out and enjoy yourselves. No, you went out there to be told that you are a sinner, that you are on the way to hell; that there is still a way out, however, if you repent quickly.
There is something appealing about high standards, the desire to do better.
The religious orders that are strict will attract converts, even in today’s easy times. The orders that make no demands attract no one. Why?
There is something instinctive in us that makes us want to do better, to aim for the highest standard of perfection.
We see this clearly in other fields beside the spiritual. Someone who plays a sport, for instance, wants to play as well as possible.
It would be no fun playing basketball if we just threw the ball any old place, and ignored the narrow target of the goals. All sports have an inherent difficultly about them. If it were not difficult it would become meaningless.
Yet, when it comes to the spiritual life there are those who will say that the standards set by Christ (and conveyed by the Church) are too strict and too demanding, and should be relaxed.
But we know there is something dishonest about that; some kind of self-deception.
Our admiration for St John the Baptist and other holy men and women tells us that they were onto something good.
Our Lord spoke of the pearl of great price. The kingdom of God was such a good thing to discover that if you did come across it, you would sell everything you owned to be able to possess this kingdom. It was the precious pearl making all else seem worthless by comparison.
The exacting moral standards put before us by Christ - such as loving one’s neighbours, and forgiving one’s enemies - are part of this desirable kingdom.
The very difficulty of these commands is a clue that there is something here worth striving for. If the kingdom were to be proclaimed as a place where everyone does exactly what he likes and no one thinks of the needs of anyone else – we would say we’ve got that already! We don’t need to strive for that place.
God has planted within us a share in His own desire for perfection. He saw what He had made and it was good. Would God settle for an imperfect universe? Of course not.
He allows sin and imperfection to come in as a byproduct of freedom of will, but He does not want imperfection, and continuously sets about trying to restore perfection.
The Saviour came to give sight to the blind, to make the lame walk etc, signs of the Kingdom of Perfection taking hold. There is something obviously pleasing about a blind man suddenly being able to see. In just the same way it is pleasing if someone who has been slack morally suddenly becomes disciplined and self-sacrificing in his approach to life.
He has been ‘healed’ of something that was wrong.
So we keep coming, to be told we are sinners, that we need to repent. It does appeal because we are geared for perfection; and it does help because it gives us a way out. May John the Baptist continue to inspire each new generation and the Saviour he introduced continue to bring to perfection.
