Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, cycle A

I’m not a very musical sort; even though my wife is a skilled organist and pianist. Our kids all took piano or violin lessons, but nothing stuck too much.  My youngest daughter and my son both did well enough to play as substitute organists.  But that was about it.  They are all grown up now and I don’t see my kids that often.  We all get together once a year and they introduced me to karaoke a few years back.  And my son did an excellent rendition of Billy Joel’s song, “You may be right!” along with some great dance moves.  And my daughter did a picture perfect rendition of “Me and Bobby McGee”.  The point is, up to that moment, I didn’t know that part of their lives.  

John the Baptist was the cousin of Jesus and recognized him before his own birth -- he lept in his mother’s womb, it says.  Later, John refers to Jesus as the one “of whom I am not worthy to untie his sandals.” In the description of John baptizing Jesus, we hear him say, “You should be baptizing me” and Jesus insists that John baptize him because that fulfills what is supposed to happen.  And today, of course, he says, “I did not know him.”   And then, John testifies that Jesus is the Son of God, having witnessed the Spirit coming down upon him and remaining.  And when you line everything up chronologically, you see that even when John is in prison awaiting his execution, his knowledge of Jesus seems to waver a bit, when he sends his disciples to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” 

I think I’m a lot like John.  When I was a little kid Jesus was kind of like Superman, without the flashy costume.  Who wouldn’t want to walk on water and heal people and rise from the dead?  When I got to college, a good Catholic college, I took courses in comparative religion, which got me to thinking Jesus is kind of like Buddah or Mohammed; and I took a course in scripture in which I learned that the gospel writers were not exactly writing history -- By the time John wrote his gospel the church had been around for 70 years or so, and were telling the story of Jesus to reflect their theology.  A protestant friend asked whether I have a personal relationship with Jesus?  I don’t quite know what that means, and if it means I speak to Him, I do; but if it means he speaks back to me, I’m not sure.  Down through the years there have been times when I could feel his presence.  In my old age I take it on faith that he is my only hope and I throw myself on his mercy.  So I’m like John, and maybe you are also.  And I think that’s not such a bad thing.  We need to explore our relationship to Jesus.  He said many times that our salvation depended upon faith in him, not just agreeing to his teachings, not knowing the bible backwards and forwards, not even leading a good and blameless life.  He said, “He who believes in me will not die”.  So anyone who follows Christ needs to struggle with who he is to me, who he is to you.  John the Baptist struggled, I struggle.  

I’ve always been a Catholic, a practicing Catholic.  I didn’t fall away in college or during my career.  I’ve missed mass on Sunday twice, once when I was about eight and my parents had to leave early Sunday morning for a trip they had to make -- and you could only fulfill your obligation on Sunday in those days -- and the other time when I was in Puerto Rico and was suffering from Sun poisoning and a lack of English speakers in my hotel.  And long ago I decided that the Catholic Church would be my guide; it would tell me what Jesus wanted of me.  It isn’t a matter of feeling, of sensing the presence of God, although that has happened now and then.  The Catholic church is the basic way I relate to Jesus Christ -- it’s the organization he founded to pass on his teachings, to give us access to his power to forgive sins, to make it possible for me to be born again, to have my sins forgiven.  I believe the Church is the body of Christ.  So today is a good day to look at our relationship with Jesus.  It should be changing, it should be expanding, just like a relationship with anyone we love.  And we Catholics have a wonderful guide to that relationship in our Church -- Despite flawed leaders, the Church is a miracle.

Do I believe you have to be Catholic to get to heaven?  No, and neither does the Church teach that. Jesus told us that he is the way, the truth and the life.  He told us that if we want to have life, we have to eat his flesh and drink his blood.  Saint Peter proclaimed, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”  What the Church does teach is that everyone who gets to heaven is saved through Jesus Christ; and that the Church has all that is necessary for salvation.  This week think about your own relationship to Jesus as well as your relationship to the Church he founded.  

Epiphany 2023

Matthew 2:1-12

Herod called all the chief priests and scribes of the people.  He asked them where the Christ was to be born.  They knew!  It was all there in the prophecies!  You can still find those prophecies and more, in your bible.  What’s more is that they knew approximately when.  The Book of Daniel kind of lays it out.  So the religious leaders of the Jewish people knew where and when the Chtrist was to be born.  And yet they stayed in Jerusalem.  I think we are kind of like that as well.  Most of us are comfortable with respect to our religion.  We come in all flavors -- some of us barely get to Church once or twice a year.  Some have dropped out completely.  Some of us never miss a weekend liturgy.  I can even recognize a few daily mass goers.  The point is, how do we shake up our spiritual lives? How are we going to make progress this year, real progress?  Do we want to be in the same shape next year as we are now?

The wise men can show us a few things.  First, they put themselves out.  We think they probably occupied the same positions in Persia as did the scribes and priests in Jerusalem.  They were primarily advisers, maybe astrologers, we don’t know -- but magi were relied upon to give sound advice and the successful ones probably lived pretty well.  But these magi based upon their own scriptures and calculations about the stars also knew where and when the Christ would be born, and they left their comfortable homes and crossed over into foreign lands.  If we want to progress in our spiritual lives, we need to do the same thing. 

Another thing about the magi is that they weren’t afraid to ask for help.  They had learned from their own sources approximately where and when the Messiah would manifest himself, but they sought help in figuring out the last bit.  They went to the local experts.  If we are going to do something about our spiritual lives, if we want to make progress, we need to consult people who can help us.  And all of us can use help.  It doesn’t even have to be an expert.  If we begin regularly talking about our spiritual lives with a confidant, we’ll begin to see where we could do better, and even what we need to do to do better.  Husbands and wives should be talking about their spiritual lives with each other.  Good friends should be helping each other get to heaven.

When the magi found the Christ child they were overjoyed, it says; they prostrated themselves -- that meant they got down on their knees.  They recognized the holiness in that Holy Family.  There are holy people among us, and you might know some of them.  But there is holiness in everyone, and the more we learn to recognize that, the more sensitive we become to holiness.  Great spiritual progress will come when we train ourselves to recognize the holiness in each other.  

New Years is a time for resolutions.  I hope we all will make a resolution to do something to stir up our spiritual lives.  There are many things we can do.  We can try to build something into our daily or weekly schedule -- perhaps begin a program of spiritual reading, of studying scripture; we might decide to say the rosary every day -- or even one decade of the rosary.  Certainly there are other prayerful practices that come to mind praying all or part of the daily prayers of the church.  As a deacon, I’m supposed to pray those prayers.  In the olden days I had to spend 110 dollars on the four books that contain the year’s worth of prayers, and if I went on a trip I’d have to remember to bring the appropriate book.  Nowadays I have an app on my cell phone that allows me to pray the appropriate prayers.  

But while all these things are good, probably the best thing you can do to grow spiritually is to join with others who are trying to grow as well.  We’ve got plenty of opportunities here in our parish.  The Knights of Columbus, the St. Joseph Society, the Saint Mary’s Ladies Guild, Food for the Soul -- Loaves and Fishes -- and many more organizations.  If you are involved with other people in service to God’s people, your spiritual growth is assured.  

The magi were warned in a dream not to return to Herod and they returned to their home by another way.  If we set out to grow in our spiritual lives, we can expect to be changed, we can count on some discomfort.  We know that Satan is the enemy of spiritual growth and will do what he can to make it hard for us to break out of our habits.  But when we encounter obstacles we should rejoice, because God will help us overcome them, and it shows we are on the right path.  So I hope that today you will make a new year’s resolution to do something so that next year this time you can look back and see that you have grown spiritually.  

Mary, Mother of God 2022

Today we celebrate Mary in her role as Mother of God.  Protestant bible scholars have a very hard time with the veneration of Mary common to Catholic and Orthodox churches.  They may agree, along with the First Council of Ephesus, that Mary is the mother of God, because obviously if Jesus is both God and man and was born from Mary, and you can’t separate his goddess from his humanity, she’s his mother.  But it stops there.  In fact the noted scholar John MacArthur argues that Jesus began going about his father’s business at the age of 12 and when he addressed Mary as “woman” at the wedding feast of Canaan and on the cross, he was indicating  that his time of being subject to his mother was over, and he was now entirely engaged with his Father in heaven.  And he’s right, if the only authority you trust is the bible.  Of course we know as does any bible scholar, that the bible itself was put together by the Catholic Church sometime in the third century.  Books of the bible were accepted if they did not disagree with church teaching, if they could be traced back to the first generation of Christians, and if they were venerated by most of the Christian world.  The gospel of Thomas, for example, has a bit of heresy;  the Gospel of Barnabas was clearly written in the late second century.  So they, and many other writings, were deemed not part of scripture.  

By the time the bible was put together, Christians had developed devotion to Mary.  Protestants who question Marian devotion by Catholics laugh at the idea that Mary can influence God because of the one scene in the bible where it seems she changed Jesus’ mind -- the wedding feast at Cana.  But early Christian devotion was more attuned to the angel who declared her “most favored” or Elizabeth, who proclaimed her “Mother of my Lord'' or even Mary herself who said, “My soul magnifies the Lord” and “all generations will call me blessed”.  People in the early church weren’t asking favors, they were standing in awe of the person God himself had selected to give him humanity, to grow him in her body, to nurse him from her breasts, to teach him to walk and talk and innumerable other things -- and yes, to change a diaper here and there, and wipe a nose and kiss a booboo.  And the church went on to discern, very early, that Mary was free of original sin from her conception -- partly because of the angel’s proclamation -- full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women.  To bible-only Protestants, these words mean little, and they grudgingly accept “blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus”. 

Can Mary influence God, get him to change his mind, persuade him to work a miracle?  We have some prayers that seem to say this.  We pray that way sometimes.  But we know deep in our hearts that nothing can happen that is not in some way part of God’s plan for the world.  No one understands whether Mary or any saint, or for that matter you and I, can alter God’s plan in the least, and just as Mary concluded her own encounter with the angel with the words “I am the handmaid of the Lord, do unto me according to his will, our prayers must always end, as Jesus taught us, with the words “Thy will be done”.   Can Mary change God’s mind?  No.  Can Mary help us to see his plan more clearly?  I think so.  And can God, who stands outside of time and space, plan from the moment of creation to answer prayers Mary will make in the future, sure.  However it works, keep asking Mary for her help.  When you get a positive result, you will glorify her, and that’s something God wants from you.  He wants all generations to call her blessed.

Look at our della robbia.  In the upper left corner Mary encounters the angel Gabriel at the Annunciation.  In the lower left, she meets with Elizabeth.  In the lower right, she and Joseph learn of Jesus’ mission when they find him in the temple in Jerusalem.  In the upper right, Jesus is telling the beloved disciple, maybe John the apostle, but most certainly the beloved disciple, who in John’s gospel always stands for you and I -- that he is her son, and she is his mother.  And it says that the beloved disciple henceforth took her into his own home.  And finally, in the center is Mary, the woman clothed in the sun, the queen of the universe, looking out on her children.  

So bring Mary into your prayer life if you don’t already.  And if you do, don’t let it get to be a rote habit.  The wonderful thing about the rosary is that it’s always fresh if we look at those twenty mysteries as telling the story of Jesus' time on earth and the indispensable role of Mary.  Mary offered herself to God and the Holy Spirit conceived Jesus in her being.  And if we do the same the spirit will do the same for us.  So ask Mary to help us accept the Holy Spirit as she did, so that you will also be a true son or daughter of God the Father.

Christmas 2022

As I get older, it’s harder for me to remember the joy I felt on Christmas morning when I was a child.  When my children were little some of that joy returned as I watched them get excited as they opened their gifts; and then the day came when it was obvious that giving them money would be more welcome than trying to pick out something for a young adult.  Then the grandchildren came along and we got another vicarious taste of Christmas joy -- but they are now also at the age where money is preferred.  So I guess I’ll have to wait for a great grandchild to see that joy once again.

But I remember one Christmas that wasn’t a very happy one.  I had seen a model gas station in the toy store, and you could take your toy car and pretend to fill up the gas tank or check the tire pressure.  But the really neat thing was that you could put the car in the garage and turn a crank and the car would be lifted up -- just like the lift in a real gas station.  I’m sure I drove my parents crazy talking about all the wonderful things I could do if only I had that gas station.  My sister Diane, on the other hand, wanted a cat.  I think I was five and she was three at the time.  Cats were easy to come by; there were a lot of them on my uncle’s farm and they were semi-tame.  So on Christmas morning as we left the house for church, I noticed under the tree a wrapped present that looked a lot like a gas station, and there, in a little cage was a kitten with a bow around his neck.  I don’t remember anything about the sermon for that particular Sunday.  When we got home, it was time to unwrap the presents.  The cat had beaten us to it.  He had escaped from his cage, torn the wrapping paper off the gas station, and not being overly bright must have mistaken the gas station for a sandbox.  My mother, seeing my distress, tried cleaning the gas station, but since it was made of relatively cheap cardboard, it ended up destroying much of its charm.  So I was pretty despondent until I decided to try the lift mechanism on my toy car.  That brightened my spirits for a while until the mechanism broke.  My sister, after petting the cat a few times, turned her attention to her doll.  I don’t remember what happened to the cat.  I suspect that my parents told my sister that he’d be a lot happier with the cats on my uncle’s farm, and she understood the logic of that.  

Does my story have anything to do with Christmas?  As you know there are several gospels that are available for Christmas; most tell some of the story of Mary and Joseph and the shepherds.  I read the selection designated for Christmas day, found in the Gospel of John.  In the Tridentine rite, which was what I grew up hearing, this was read at the end of every Mass, after the people were dismissed and after the final blessing.  Pope Paul V made the Tridentine rite mandatory in the Western church in 1570, and the Last Gospel was meant to connect what the congregation had just witnessed with creation and the mystery of the incarnation.  With every Mass we believe the Word becomes flesh and dwells among us, and we have seen his glory when Father raises the body and blood of Christ at the time of consecration.  But look at this beautiful gospel.  In the very beginning the Word was God. Without him nothing came to be.  He brought life, and this life was the light of humanity, shining in darkness.  And to those who did accept him, he gave power to become children of God, born not by our choice but God’s.  

There’s a national park in South Dakota called Jewel Cave.  You can go down there with a guide, and the climax of the trip is when all the lights are turned off and you experience a complete absence of light.  It’s quite impressive.  After a minute or so, the guide turns on his flashlight and it’s just enough light to bounce around the crystals that make up the walls of the cave.  That’s what I always imagine when I read this gospel.  Jesus is light, but there is still darkness.  While we are on this side of the grave, there will always be darkness, but for those who look for it, there will be enough light to make our way; and we can choose to go deeper into the darkness as well, instead of moving toward the light.  And the best way to follow the light is to put yourself in his presence as often as you can; and his presence, we are guaranteed, is in the Eucharist at every Mass.  John tells us that no one has ever seen God; but the only Son, who is at the Father’s side, who is at the manger 2000 years ago, who is on the cross on calvary, and who is here in the miracle of the Eucharist, has revealed him; he is the light that lights the darkness.

I remember that Christmas when I was five -- probably the darkest Christmas I’d ever experienced -- up until my grandparents came over delivering their presents.  I got a scale model Ford Sedan that you could wind up and it would speed around the room.  My day got a lot brighter.  And I still have that toy after 75 years. A light always shines in darkness.  

Fourth Sunday of Advent, cycle A

 Matthew 1:18-24

During the Christmas season we hear little bits from the gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke about the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth. When you go to the actual gospels, though, they are two almost entirely different stories. Matthew is about Joseph, the visit of the Magi, the exile and return from Egypt, and the massacre of the Holy Innocents. Jesus is born in Bethlehem, but when the Holy Family returns from Egypt, they settle down in Nazareth. In Luke, on the other hand, it’s all about Mary. The Annunciation, her consent to be the “handmaid of the Lord'', her visit to Elizabeth, the trek to Bethlehem because of the Emperor’s census, Je3sus being borne in a manger, the shepherds and angels, the presentation in the temple and the return to Nazareth. A very different story. I think, though, that all of us remember the birth of Jesus as one story, and what Christmas scene would not have shepherds and magi, as well as animals, all in the same time frame?

We know a fair amount about marriage customs among the Jewish people of Jesus’ time. Matches were made by the parents -- more specifically, the dads, who listened to their wives or ignored them; but the decision was the dads. The kids could refuse to go along, but usually didn’t, because most of the time the parents of the bride and groom were really sincere about wanting the best for their children, and the expectations of the bride and groom were very different from today. So after the engagement, the bride would continue to live in her parent’s home and the groom, who was usually several years older, would set about saving up some money and building a home, or building an addition onto his parent’s home. Then there would be a great ceremony in which the groom collected his bride and brought her to their new home. And that was the moment when the young man became the king of his castle, the lord of the manor. His wife and children would defer to him; he was the father of the family, and in those days, that meant status..

Joseph and Mary had not reached that point; they were betrothed, but not living together. Some people think that Joseph was planning to divorce Mary quietly because she was obviously pregnant and he knew he wasn’t the dad. But there’s another theory -- Mary had told him about the angel -- it says she was with child through the Holy Spirit -- and Joseph, being a righteous man, wanted to get out of God’s way. In other words, he believed Mary. It was only when the angel confirmed Mary’s story in a dream that Joseph felt he had God’s permission to intrude on this most holy event.

Do you wonder if sometimes Joseph had mixed feelings about what was happening? To go from what he expected -- to be the lord of the manor, the king of the castle, if only with respect to his family -- to becoming the one who serves not only God, but Mary and Jesus, the son of God. And the dreams just kept coming. “Take Mary into your home.” “Rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt ''. Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel”. And then instead of going back to Bethlehem, being told in a dream to settle in Galilee in Nazareth. Notice the angel refers to them as “the child and his mother” not “your wife and your son”. And for various reasons we are pretty certain that Joseph was out of the picture by the time Jesus began his mission, because we never hear about him again. Mary, at least, would learn that Jesus rose from the dead and she would see the fruits of his passion in the church that he founded through his apostles. Joseph probably died knowing only that this child, so important to God, was a carpenter, which is a good thing, but hardly worth all that Joseph went through because of those dreams.

You know how you do a jigsaw puzzle. You find the corners first, then the pieces with straight edges, and once you’ve formed the frame you gradually fill in the pieces. My wife likes jigsaw puzzles. I don’t see the point. But that’s Joseph’s life. He found some of the corners and some of the straight edge pieces, but never finished the puzzle.

And he’s like you and I. We hardly ever see the point of our lives, or if we do, it’s clearly not the whole story. Disappointments, failures, expectations that never came true -- loss of loved ones -- I suspect Joseph’s story is our story as well. But we never hear Joseph complain. We see him obeying, doing the best he can for the child and his mother. Joseph was snatched out of the life he had expected and given a task by God, and he may have never known what it all meant. And all we can hold on to is that God sees the finished puzzle and will share it with us after we have risen from the dead.

Third Sunday of Advent, cycle A

Matthew 11:2-11

In the Gospels you read a little bit here and there about John the Baptist.  When Mary visited Elizabeth, the infant in Elizabeth’s womb leapt for joy.  His father, Zachariy, sang a canticle when he regained his speech, prophesying the future for his son who would be the prophet of the most high, who would go before the lord to prepare his way.  If Zachary and Elizabeth had had those experiences, you can be sure that they did everything they could to get John ready for his role.  And John was ready as well.  We don’t know when he went into the desert, but when he came out he attracted a large following, and preached repentance.  And in the Gospel of John we hear him point to Jesus and say, “There goes the Lamb of God”.  Now John is in prison, and probably knows what’s ahead for him.  You don’t cross Herod and expect to get off lightly.  And John is wondering whether he’s been a fool, whether that cousin of his is really the one who is to come.

John has had a lot of success, he’s been a rock star.  And Jesus is starting out in his own ministry.  John at least can point to his ancestry -- he’s the son of a priest, and priesthood was hereditary -- Zachary and John could trace their ancestry back to Levi, one of the sons of Jacob.  Any time you meet a Jewish person whose last name is Cohen, he could probably trace his line back to Jacob as well, and in orthodox circles someone like that can do certain priestly activities, like witnessing marriages.  Jesus on the other hand, seems to be a nobody.  His dad is a craftsman, a carpenter; his Mom had Jesus a little too early after she and Joseph married, and people are still talking.  And while the gospel writers trace Jesus’ ancestry back to King David, it’s not apparent that this means much to the day to day lives of Mary and Joseph.  Is Jesus really the one who is to come?

John asks that question.   And Jesus answers, you decide for yourself.  And that’s what each person has to do.  John was made aware that Jesus was going around doing things that Isaiah the prophet had predicted that the Messiah would do.  But there were a lot more things that had been predicted.  The Messiah was to raise an army and drive out the Romans, and restore the kingdom of Israel.  The Messiah was to bring in the nations of the world to join Israel in the true worship of God.  The Messiah was to restore the twelve tribes of Israel.  He was to lead the worship in the temple.  You can find these prophecies throughout the Old Testament.  But Jesus was wandering around northern Palestine, far from Jerusalem, preaching and healing people.  He didn’t match the expectations.  No wonder John was wondering.  

As John’s messengers go off, Jesus confirms that John is the prophet who is to usher in the Messiah.  There have been no human beings greater than John.  But Jesus adds the disturbing words, “The least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.”

And that’s the question we need to ask ourselves today.  Are we in the kingdom of Heaven?  Did John get into the kingdom of Heaven?  I don’t know the answer to that.  He was a martyr for Christ, and as such, Catholic theology would agree that he’s a saint, just like the Holy Innocents who were children martyred by Herod when Christ was a baby.  John is in Heaven.  But the kingdom of Heaven is not the same thing as Heaven.  Jesus said that the kingdom of Heaven is among us.  It’s not far off, it’s not after we die, it’s right here and now.  Because you can’t get into the kingdom of heaven until Jesus establishes it.  And his whole life, death and resurrection ushers in the Kingdom.  His life is the turning point, the new dispensation.  At that moment in time and space, God became man, and nothing will ever be as it was before.  

I know a lady over at the Jewish nursing home.  I’ve always admired her -- she worked patiently and enthusiastically with patients with Alzheimer’s disease.  She seemed to touch the humanity of these people.  She treated them with kindness and dignity.  She is in the kingdom of heaven.  I know a high school teacher who, no matter how she feels, goes to work every morning determined to make a difference -- and she does, if you go by the enthusiasm with which her students sing her praises.  She changes lives, she’s in the kingdom of heaven.  I know a businessman who helps other businessmen understand that they have a noble and holy profession. He’s in the kingdom of Heaven. i know a person who has a tedious job moving patients in the hospital to surgery and diagnostic studies, and she treats all of them as though they were Christ himself.  She is in the kingdom of heaven. 

John could not enter the kingdom of Heaven, because Jesus had not established it.  You and I can, because we share in his divinity, we are sons and daughters of his Father; and we are given the grace to do what He would do.  And to the extent that we do it, we are in the kingdom of Heaven.  During Advent let’s review our lives and ask whether we are in the kingdom of Heaven.  Are we doing what Jesus would do if he were in our shoes?  

Second Sunday of Advent, cycle A

Matthew 3:1-12

John the Baptist tells the people who are following him to repent.  To many of us, repentance means that we should be sorry for our sins and resolve to do better.  Of course we should do that, but that's not what John had in mind.  John spoke in Aramaic, but the earliest copies of the Gospels were in Greek, and the word used here is “metanoia”.  Metanoia more or less means “above or beyond one's mind.”  The Greeks used the word to describe the process of thinking a new way or adopting a different way of looking at things.  

So it's not being sorry for your sins that John wants, it's something different.  He calls us to change our point of view.  But to what?  Once I heard a talk in which the preacher said that we had to always repent, repentance was a lifelong project.  But he never answered the question – what is the goal of repentance, of metanoia?  How can we do this if we don't know where we are supposed to end up?

Off the coast of Maryland and Virginia are two barrier islands.  Ever since the sixteenth century there have been horses on these islands.  They think they may have gotten there from a Spanish galleon that sank nearby.  Over the years, these wild horses have gotten smaller and stockier.  They can't get off the islands, and they live on the local vegetation, which is not a very good food for horses; sea grasses and various weeds lack some of the nutrients that horses need, so the wild horses develop soft bones and arthritis.  Sandstorms are frequent, and because sand dust is everywhere, they wear their teeth down faster than horses on the mainland would.  They also get dental problems.  And flies and fleas and various other pests are always biting.  Horses that are plagued by pests will sometimes dive into water to drown the biting insects.  These horses can only immerse themselves in salt water, and when that dries, it irritates their skin even more.  In other words, these wild horses have kind of a lousy life.  

Every summer since 1925, the herd of horses are chased across a shallow body of water onto the island of Chincateague, where several of the foals and yearlings are auctioned off usually to become pets.  In their new lives, they get fed regularly and are given the right kind of diet; their new owners groom them and keep their coats clean; and they have shelter from the wind and the rain, and access to fresh water.  And they are “broken”, a somewhat difficult process in which they learn to obey commands and carry a rider, or pull a carriage. 

In summary, the horse on the island lives for itself, but the horse that becomes domesticated lives for someone else.  

I know that's a silly example, but that is what John, and later, Jesus, means by repentance.  We stop living for ourselves, and we live for someone else.  We quit trying to guide our own lives and we let God guide us.  And that is a lifetime's worth of work, but at least we now know where we are supposed to go, what we are supposed to do when we go through “metanoia” when we change our point of view.  

John's call is not a new one.  The call to repentance is as old as mankind.  Adam and Eve were called, but chose to live for themselves.  Abraham was called, and chose to live for God, to let God lead his life for Him.  And the call continues down through the present day; every person is called, and every person can make the choice – to continue to live for himself, or to allow God to take over his life.  

Think back to those horses for a minute.  We human beings still feel a little uneasy about those horses who get domesticated.  After all, they seem to be giving up their freedom.  Probably this doesn't bother the horse, but we human beings treasure our independence, and it seems as though if we give our lives to God, we give something up.  But that's an illusion.  In some mysterious way that is only apparent to people who have gone through this process, letting God lead your life is real freedom; just ask a Saint.  We like freedom because it allows us to choose what we see as good.  But if God is leading our life, we already have the greatest good.  Like the horse that needs to be broken, to let God live our lives is going to take a little pain and readjustment, and the more we open up to God, the more we have to go through this breaking in process.  

To a domesticated horse, not only is there a great improvement in health, but possibilities are opened up which would never occur to the wild horse.  And the domesticated horse will live about twice as long as he would have in the wild, on the barrier island off the coast of Virginia.  

Repentance, metanoia, changing our point of view; if we stop living for ourselves and begin letting God live in us, living for God, our lives will change for the better; we will find ourselves caught up in a cause greater than anything we can imagine; we will become powerful and able to do what we could never do by ourselves; and we will have abundant life.  It's all there in the words of Jesus.

John called on his followers to repent.  He was a good psychologist.  He knew that many who heard him would desire to repent, to enter into this wonderful relationship so far better than anything they could achieve on their own.  But desire is never enough, desire doesn't make a change.  It's necessary to do more, to produce good fruit.  IF you really want to let God take over your life, if you want to accept the wonderful invitation God holds out to you, you have to live as though you are already there.  One of the consequences of living for God is that God begins to use you to bring about what God wants to happen.  That means good works.  So John tells his followers, “Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.”  We will never get to heaven by doing good things.  But if we begin to act as Jesus acted, we will begin to change, to give our lives to God.  

So accept John's challenge.  Change your life, turn around.  Stop living for your self, and give your whole self to God.  And do good works as evidence.  And your life will be better than anything you have ever imagined.