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Gospel: Saint John 1:
19-28
Those
who teach others are merely the voice which
prepares
hearts; it belongs to God himself to prepare
them by his
grace to receive him
3.1
First Point
The Jews sent priests
and Levites from Jerusalem to ask Saint John who he was: the Christ, or
Elijah, or a prophet.[i]
Saint John told them he was none of these, but declared, I am the voice
of one crying in the desert: make straight the way of the Lord.[ii]
Saint John wished to leave to Jesus Christ all the honor of converting
souls, the task at which he himself labored so constantly. He said,
therefore, that he was only a voice crying out in the desert.[iii]
He thus showed that the substance of the doctrine he taught was not his own
and that it was indeed the word of God which he preached; as for himself, he
was only the voice which proclaimed it. In the same way that a voice is a
sound which strikes the ear and makes it possible for a word to be heard, so
it was that Saint John prepared the Jews to receive Jesus Christ.
The same thing is
true of those who instruct others. They are only the voice of the One who
really disposes hearts to accept Jesus Christ and his holy teaching. The
one who disposes them, according to Saint Paul, can only be God,[iv]
who imparts to humans the gift of speaking of him. According to the same
apostle, when you speak all the tongues, both angelic and human, if you
lack charity,[v]
or rather, if it is not God who makes you speak and who uses your voice to
reveal himself and his sacred mysteries, you are nothing but sounding
brass and tinkling cymbals.[vi]
All you say will produce no good effect and will not be capable of bringing
about any good results.
Let us then
humble ourselves, considering that we are nothing but a voice, and that of
ourselves we cannot say anything that will do the least good for souls or
make any impression on them. For we are a mere voice, only a sound which
becomes nothing once it has echoed through the air.
3.2
Second Point
Those who teach are only
God's voice. The word which makes God known to those whom they instruct must
come from him; it is he who speaks in teachers when they explain him and
what is related to him. This is why Saint Peter says, If any speak, let
it always be clear that God is speaking by their mouth; if any fulfill a
ministry, let them do so as acting only by the power God communicates to
them, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.[vii]
Saint Peter
also says on the subject of the truth he was preaching, I shall never
give over warning you of these things, even though you already know the
truth about them and it is established in you.[viii]
He adds, we have the word of the prophets which is firmly established and
to which you do well to attach yourselves, for it is like a lamp shining in
a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in our hearts;
for it was not through the human will that in times past prophecy was
uttered; it was rather by the movement of the Holy Spirit that these men of
God spoke.[ix]
It is also by the
movement of the Spirit of God that all those who today proclaim his kingdom
continue to speak. But if God makes use of persons to announce the truths of
Christianity to others and to prepare their hearts to be docile to these
truths, it is God alone, as the Wise Man says, who must guide
their steps[x]
and impart to their hearts the docility they need in order to welcome these
holy truths that he is making known to them.
Do not be
content, therefore, to read and to learn from others what you must teach
your pupils. Pray God to impress all these truths so firmly on yourselves
that you will not have any occasion to be or to consider yourselves to be
anything, as Saint Paul says, but the ministers of God and the dispensers
of his mysteries.[xi]
3.3 Third Point
Saint Zachary, the
father of Saint John the Baptist, says in the canticle which he sang at the
birth of his son, that the reason why Saint John was to walk before Jesus
Christ and prepare the way for him was to bring to his people the
knowledge of salvation.[xii]
But this knowledge is not enough; it is necessary for God himself, through
Jesus Christ Our Lord, to show us the path we must follow, and to inspire us
to walk in the footsteps of his Son.
Although in this
life we sigh under the weight of our bodies and long to be free of this
burden,[xiii]
it is God who created us for this very purpose and who has given us his
Holy Spirit as a pledge.[xiv]
It is then up to God to direct our path straight toward heaven, so that we
may surely arrive there. For this reason it was as the Son of God that
Jesus Christ became the Author of our eternal salvation.[xv]
Since salvation, as the Prophet says, comes from God,[xvi]
perfection likewise comes from him. Saint James assures us, every
excellent grace and every perfect gift comes from on high and descends from
the Father of lights.[xvii]
Beg God,
therefore, to lead you on the way to heaven by the path which he himself has
traced out for you. Ask him to help you embrace the perfection of your
state, because he is the one who brought you into it, and who consequently
desired and still desires that you find in it the way and the means of
sanctifying yourself.
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