We are Hyperlinks

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 1:1-8.
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you;
he will prepare your way.
A voice of one crying out in the desert:
"Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths."
John the Baptist appeared in the desert
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
People of the whole Judean countryside
and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem
were going out to him
and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River
as they acknowledged their sins.
John was clothed in camel's hair,
with a leather belt around his waist.
He fed on locusts and wild honey.
And this is what he proclaimed:
"One mightier than I is coming after me.
I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.
I have baptized you with water;
he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

---

Reflection

St. John the Baptist is the Biblical prototype of the hyperlink. Those texts on the web that you click/tap in order to follow up on some information were called hyperlinks by the founding engineers of the internet and web. They link pages together allowing us to jump from one page to another. The name is cool because it really is a hyper jump. Unknowingly, as you follow through those links, you are interacting with webpages hosted in the USA, then Europe, then Africa, then China... You get the point. These links hold the web together.

John the Baptist reminds us to be hyperlinks today inasmuch as he was to Jesus. Fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah, he prepared Israel for the coming of the Messiah by his preaching of repentance. He was not the message nor the Word. He was the hyperlink to the Word. He led people to believe in Jesus. He attracted people and forwarded them to Jesus. He was the introduction, Jesus is the core message.

Jesus, after all, is the fulfillment of the Scriptures. His baptism is the Baptism of the Spirit that fulfills what was begun by John's baptism of water. This Fulfillment comes with a prelude that does not promote himself but humbly points out the coming of his Master. Do we as Catholic Christians point out the coming of Jesus by our life-witnessing? When people hover around us can they see us pointing to Jesus? As Jesus' birth is coming, we deepen our shared role with St. John the Baptist.

Watch and Wait

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 13:33-37.
Jesus said to his disciples:
"Be watchful! Be alert!
You do not know when the time will come.
It is like a man traveling abroad.
He leaves home and places his servants in charge,
each with his own work,
and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch.
Watch, therefore;
you do not know when the Lord of the house is coming,
whether in the evening, or at midnight,
or at cockcrow, or in the morning.
May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.
What I say to you, I say to all: 'Watch!'"

---

Reflection

Hacking and data intrusion is our version of Jesus' comparison today. While most of us are oblivious to the dangers of being connected to the internet, there are individuals who by reason of fun, challenge, surveillance, or even ill-intent are hard at work peeling off the layers of security that protect us in this connected world. People never know when they are hacked. It happens silently as the user is happily browsing his Facebook feed and notifications or curiously clicking a dubious link.

The same warning given to all tech-savvy and internet-connected citizens was given by Jesus. "Be watchful! Be alert!" It is a warning that pushes us to prepare. Our naivete and disregard in our online behavior is but a mirror of what happens in flesh-and-blood reality and in the depths of our Christian inner life. We live our online life, physical life, and spiritual life not in an atmosphere of the YOLO but always in anticipation of what is coming.

What and who then is coming? The Lord of the house of which we were put in charge. As we begin this Advent season, the Church reminds us to put our affairs, our lives, our house, in order so that when the Lord comes, he finds everything well, nay, better. This season of Advent is a privileged period for us to prepare spiritually and physically for the birth of Jesus.

Our watching out is not seeped in anxiety but in hopeful anticipation. We watch out not because we don't want Jesus to find us sleeping in our sins, but that despite of our failures we stayed awake waiting for him. Advent is a time of preparation. There is no better preparation than repentance and reconciliation with God and with others.

The Righteous are the Merciful

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 25:31-46.
Jesus said to his disciples:
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory,
and all the angels with him,
he will sit upon his glorious throne,
and all the nations will be assembled before him.
And he will separate them one from another,
as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Then the king will say to those on his right,
'Come, you who are blessed by my Father.
Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me drink,
a stranger and you welcomed me,
naked and you clothed me,
ill and you cared for me,
in prison and you visited me.'
Then the righteous will answer him and say,
'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you,
or thirsty and give you drink?
When did we see you a stranger and welcome you,
or naked and clothe you?
When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?'
And the king will say to them in reply,
'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did
for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.'
Then he will say to those on his left,
'Depart from me, you accursed,
into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
For I was hungry and you gave me no food,
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
a stranger and you gave me no welcome,
naked and you gave me no clothing,
ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.'
Then they will answer and say,
'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty
or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison,
and not minister to your needs?'
He will answer them, 'Amen, I say to you,
what you did not do for one of these least ones,
you did not do for me.'
And these will go off to eternal punishment,
but the righteous to eternal life."

---

Reflection
We have come to the end of the Liturgical Year. The Solemnity of Christ the King sums up the whole Cycle A with the vision of Jesus as Judge. In this vision presented to us by Jesus who refers to Himself as the Son of Man, at the end of times He will judge everyone according to his life.

If the end of the world brings with it the final judgement, then Jesus has already given us the cheat sheet. The questions are already leaked ahead of time. All of these questions refer to the acts of mercy that the Church has taught us. The final judgement then is all about measuring how merciful we all have been. More than doing good deeds, it also tests how much our disposition and our characters have grown to be like God, the Father of mercies. How God-like are we? The King of kings will weigh the harmony of our being and our doing, of our spirit and our actions, of who we are inside that flows to the outside.

The curious thing in the story is that those who were deemed worthy of heaven were surprised at the judgement handed down to them. When they did the good that they have done, their intentions were not to gain heaven but to serve the needy person before them. The righteous are those that saw concrete and real suffering and addressed it. They were not blinded by ambitions of glory and heaven. Mercy is the purest expression of love - it extends itself without expecting anything in return.