who do I want to challenge me?

Homily

2nd Sunday of Advent BII

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

6 December 2020

+St. Nicholas

AMDG +JMJ +m

Who do I want to challenge me?  Who do I want to give me a good old-fashioned chewing out?  Who do I want to rip me up one side and down the other?

If my answer is nobody, I am a fool.  For only fools try to motivate or guide themselves.  I must always be asking people how I can get better! If my answer is nobody, I will not be ready to have my best Christmas, and I may never will.

I need a prophet to help me.  So do you, and not just any prophet.  I need a prophet like John the Baptist, a ruthless one kicking and screaming and going nuts to get my attention.  Without someone to challenge me, I will remain forever just as I am now, and that's not good enough.

Granted, the standard for this person, this prophet, must be high.  It has to be someone trustworthy. It has to be someone who cares for me, knows me, believes in me, and desires my good.  It can't be someone abusive, manipulative or filled with self-interest.

Yet need this person I do! Without this prophet, I will surely miss the most important message, person and moment of my life.  I just will.  Fools try to motivate and focus themselves.  Saints respond to prophets!

John the Baptist always shows up on this 2nd Sunday of Advent as a ruthless prophet desperate to get our attention.  Why doesn't he just chill out?  Relax, Johnny boy!  It's because he just can't.  He announces not just a word, but the WORD after which none greater will ever be spoken.  He introduces not just another VIP, but the person prophesied by Isaiah who alone can recreate the world from the inside out.  He points to not just a big moment in history, but the moment greater than the Big Bang that will transform reality at its very core.

No wonder he's screaming louder than Bill Self at the referees!  Wake up!  Get ready!  Get your life together!  For to miss this word, this person, and this moment is to miss everything that ultimately matters.

I remember two words spoken to me by spiritual directors that changed my life forever.  You're the most ungrateful person I have ever met.  Your life is not about you.  The words stung, and they still do. Yet they were exactly what I most needed to hear.  I tremble to think who I would be if those prophets,  out of sheer love for me,  did not have the courage to call me out.

Who do I want to challenge me?