UNIQUE GENIUS

Solemnity of the Nativity of John the Baptist

 

UNIQUE GENIUS

 

“What, then, will this child be?” – Luke 1: 66

 

A teacher once told Michael’s mother that he’d never be able to focus on anything in his life because of his difficulty in focusing on the lessons in the classroom.

As a boy, he was diagnosed with ADHD. He’d often stand up and can’t stay quiet. It was very hard for him to concentrate. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Michael Fred Phelps won eight gold medals in various swimming events — the most gold reaped by anyone in a single Olympics. That’s aside from the various awards and records he still holds.

Often, we hold biases and beliefs about how a child would grow up based on what they are now and what they do.

We tend to box a child (or other people for that matter) with what we see or of our impression of what they do. We relegate them to the sidelines. The cruelest thing we do is give up on them.

God made us great with our own unique genius. We should treat others and ourselves as such.Jun Asis (mabuting.balita@gmail.com)

 

REFLECTION:

There is a gem in each person. Look for it in others and in your self.

 

Lord, let me look beyond my sight and recognize Your divine presence in other people and in myself.

 

BEYOND LIMITS

 

John the Baptist’s mother was barren. His father was mute. He was born in circumstances that may be described as nothing short of miraculous. He came to the scene as quickly as he receded from it. He did a meteoric rise of sorts, but just as precipitously went down to self-imposed oblivion: “He must increase; I must decrease.” He died a violent death at the hands of someone who danced her way to curry the favor of a king who was as superficial in his vision as he was shallow in character. He had made a hasty, not-so-well-thought-out promise to the vicious but voluptuous young girl, a daughter of an even more vicious and voraciously ambitious woman.

John the Baptist, a man who stood as a sign of contradiction, “greater than whom, no man ever born of woman had ever lived,” is our man of the hour. Though born of a barren womb, John showed remarkable fecundity even in his hidden, humble life. Though sired by an old and mute man Zechariah, John boomed a powerful voice of prophecy that shook his little world then.

We are in an hour of human history when we have effectively been rendered mute and barren. We cannot raise our voices in protest about so many things, silenced as we are by human respect and political correctness. We cannot make known our true feelings about God and His Kingdom on earth, because we fear to offend those who would hear nothing of religion and its place in our lives. We are mute before the powers-that-be who railroad their self-serving plans because perhaps we also benefit from them in some way. We have become barren in more ways than one, unable to “bear fruit in charity for the life of the world.” All we do often end in disappointment — our own and that of others.

We need to do a John the Baptist, not with power, prestige, position and privilege, but with humility, hiddenness and honest-to-goodness dedication to God’s cause. John pulled it off. Beyond expectations. Beyond limits. Are we ready to follow him?Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB           

 

Reflection Question:

Am I ready to do a John the Baptist in my own millieu?

 

Lord God, grant me the courage and wisdom of John the Baptist so that I could speak out when there is a need to.

 

St. Barthlomew of Fame, pray for us.