Getting to Know You
In a small box of memories that I carry with me from rectory to rectory – one that I have kept since high school – there exists some gifts, notes and trinkets that have sentimental value only to me, things that I can’t and don’t want to let go off for a variety of reasons: my Bonner class ring; my first-published
newspaper column; a rusted Matchbox Volkswagen Beetle that I have held onto since 1978; and a plastic sink-stopper.
Seems like an odd memento to cling to, doesn’t it? A .98-cent sink-stopper from Kmart.
And yet, in some ways – it’s priceless.
It came to me on the last day of Senior Retreat in 1992, a day when we graduating seniors gathered in small groups of 10 on the beach in Stone Harbor, New Jersey, and had to offer a token gift to another classmate chosen at random. It could be anything that we didn’t steal from the place where we were staying, from another senior, or from the adjoining retreat-house properties. That’s a lot to ask of 60- some teenaged boys.
The classmate who had chosen my name at random – a popular athlete at the time who never would have hung in the same social circles as I once did – came up to me at the water’s edge when it was it his turn and handed me the sink-stopper, offering the words that I have never forgotten, 33-years later:
“You have a lot to offer, but you hold it back. Pull the stopper out.”
Not many words from Steven, but it spoke volumes. He knew me, maybe better than I knew myself at
age 17.
It’s a powerful realization when someone really knows the authentic you, isn’t it?
That’s why the Gospel passage is baffling from this perspective: not once, but twice, did John the Baptist
tell his followers, “I did not know him.” Him, as in Jesus, the Lamb of God whom John just pointed the people toward. Him, the very cousin of John. Him, the very reason why John was baptizing in the
desert. How could he say that he did not know Jesus?
Now, it could very well be that John and Jesus – although cousins – never spent much time together after their infancy and early childhood. John might have entered the desert as a boy on the cusp of
manhood, and Jesus – as Scripture tells us – lived a quiet, humble life in the shadow of Joseph in a carpenter’s shop. Thus, when Jesus came to the Jordan that day as a man – and John is busy preparing
hearts for the Messiah – it is possible that John did not know Jesus as the Christ, the Promised One.
But quite frankly, there’s something deeper here, something that is meant for each of us to grow in our relationship with Christ in profound ways, ways that will change us in every way imaginable if we want it to. We must do the work of getting up close and personal with Him, which is the very thing the Lord longs for: our hearts, our lives, our wills, our everything.
By John the Baptist admitting that he did not know Jesus was the Christ, pay attention to the fact that he came to know him in two specific ways, ways that are as present to us today as they were to John at the Jordan River: through the Spirit and through the voice of the Father.
“I saw the Spirit descend like a dove and remain upon him,” said John as he motions toward Jesus as the Messiah. There is something about the Spirit of God that can’t be ignored here, nor should it be. While it may be true that none of us are seeing a dove hovering over the heads of others who are blessed by the Spirit, we certainly can see love in action in the lives of those who follow the Christ.
The Spirit of God is love, and John paid attention to love. The authentic, lay-down-your-life love of the Savior, God-made-man. John was a witness to the love of God-in-Christ that healed, that served, that
forgave. A love that was honest and pure. A love that radiated mercy. John was changed by that love, and because of it, he recognized that Spirit of Love when it came upon Jesus. In a word, John was transformed by Love, and it radically affected his relationship with the Father, with others, and even in his own heart.
The same holds true for us: pay attention to love, and live in its light. No matter what the world is throwing at us, and no matter how many times Satan attempts to drag us down, cling to authentic love.
When we witness the power of love at work in others, and when we come to embrace and live that sacrificial love ourselves, we come to know Jesus in a deep and meaningful way. We become intimate
with Him, and not just know about him. Quite frankly, it’s easy to know about someone. It takes the Spirit to really know and love another person.
Be open to the Spirit of Love – every day. Why are we not asking the Spirit to help us love others in our varied and complex relationships, in the work we do, and in the routines of our ordinary-time lives?
Why aren’t we calling on the Spirit to help us love more like Jesus, and in so doing, come to a greater relationship with Him? You and I can heal in Jesus’ Name each time we choose to listen and not simply
respond with our own agenda. You and I can forgive – only with the grace of God – those who have hurt us along the way. You and I can feed others by the ways we sacrifice for their good and for their
holiness. When we do those things, we live His Love and we grow in His Love.
Closely connected, of course – for you can’t have one without the other – we must be attentive to the voice of God at work in our lives.
You will say, “Oh Father, we don’t hear God speak as John did in the desert,” but notice something about this passage: John the evangelist never wrote that the Baptizer audibly heard the voice of the
Father. All John said was that “God told me.”
God tells us many things when we open ourselves up to times of prayer. Real prayer. Never be afraid that your prayer isn’t good enough or that it is too distracted or sloppy for the Lord to pay attention to.
Keep showing-up anyway. Like authentic love, prayer takes dedication. It can often feel dry, empty. Do it anyway.
For when you do, God will speak: sometimes through others; often through what most call “coincidence.” God is faithful to every prayer offered, and He will always point the way forward, bringing about strength and courage when the cross we carry is heavy and as well as resurrection moments when we think there is no way beyond the wall of despair, loneliness or fear that we oftentimes face.
When we pray and when we stat attentive to the Spirit of Love, we notice Jesus at work in our lives, and we come to follow Him intimately – lovingly – as the Way, the Truth and the Life. Perhaps even equally vital: we become holy through such sanctification (as Paul tells the Corinthians) and we end-up being the presence of Christ for others.
Just as one high school senior armed with a sink-stopper became for me.
As we travelled back to Pennsylvania later that evening in one of the musty school vans that smells like old sweat and decayed vinyl, Steve leaned forward when he saw I was still holding onto the stopper: “I meant what I said. Pull out the stopper.”
I asked him how he knew it was what I needed to hear.
“It just sort of came to me in prayer, I guess,” he said, somewhat sheepishly, as if he was embarrassed to admit he did so. “Plus, dude – I sat behind you in homeroom for 4 years. You can’t help but get to know someone if you pay attention.”
Prayer and paying attention to the Spirit – the way to know and love Christ and love Christ in one another.
All we have to do is pull the stopper …