Daily Gospel Reflection
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December 16, 2021
When the messengers of John the Baptist had left,
Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John.
“What did you go out to the desert to see a reed swayed by the wind?
Then what did you go out to see?
Someone dressed in fine garments?
Those who dress luxuriously and live sumptuously
are found in royal palaces.
Then what did you go out to see?
A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.
This is the one about whom Scripture says:
Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
he will prepare your way before you.
I tell you,
among those born of women, no one is greater than John;
yet the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he.”
(All the people who listened, including the tax collectors,
who were baptized with the baptism of John,
acknowledged the righteousness of God;
but the Pharisees and scholars of the law,
who were not baptized by him,
rejected the plan of God for themselves.)
While doing improv comedy in college, our improv group would occasionally perform a cold open.
A cold open is a short act that precedes the main event. It transitions people out of their busy lives and transports them into the realm of the upcoming performance. The cold open also exists to build excitement. It sets the tone.
A good cold open is simultaneously superior to what the vast majority of people could do— “among those born of women, no one is greater than John”—and inferior to the main event— “yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”
John the Baptist was the cold open for Jesus Christ, but why would Jesus need a cold open? Why would God need a messenger to prepare the way?
Had Christ come cold without warming us up, he would’ve brought a message of salvation through the Incarnation that no one was ready to hear, like a comedian who tells a joke to people who aren’t really listening.
Over the course of thousands of years, God has been methodically preparing our slow-believing hearts to accept news so good that an unprepared person might dismiss or never notice at all.
Once through ancient prophets of Israel and today through the Church, the Lord still prepares us for the revelation of God’s glory. Yet, as the gospels make clear, even thousands of years of preparation is no guarantee that we will welcome Jesus’s advent.
Let us spend some time this Advent asking God to point out Christ to us. Through our practices of daily prayer, Mass, service to the poor, reading Scripture, or our experiences of beauty, truth, and goodness, may God warm up hearts that may have grown cold.
Prayer
Lord, John the Baptist was no reed swayed by the wind. He prepared the way before you by his preaching, and died a martyr’s death. Now it is up to us to continue your work of salvation by the lives we lead and the witness we give. Help us do so with faith and courage. Amen.