MEDITATIO

Why, after he had been imprisoned, did John the Baptist send his disciples to ask: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect another?” as though he did not know the very one to whom he had pointed?… This question is quickly answered if we examine the time and order in which events took place. On the banks of the Jordan John affirmed that Jesus was the Redeemer of the world (Jn 1:29); even so, after his imprisonment, he asked whether he was really the one who was to come. It was not that he doubted Jesus to be the Redeemer of the world, but he wanted to know whether he who had come in person into the world would also descend in person to the prison-house of the dwelling-place of the dead. Because he whom John had already announced to the world in his role as forerunner, he would also precede into the underworld by his death… It is as though he wanted to say clearly: “Just as you have deigned to be born for man’s sake, grant us to know whether you will also deign to die for him in such a way that, forerunner as I am of your birth so shall I also be of your death, and so that I may proclaim your coming to the dwelling places of the dead just as I have proclaimed your coming into the world.” This is the reason why the Lord’s answer, immediately after recounting the miracles wrought by his power, refers to his going down to death: “The blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. And blessed is the one who takes no offence at me!” Having witnessed so many signs and such great wonders no one has any reason to stumble but, rather, much to admire. Nevertheless, serious cause of scandal arose in the spirits of those who did not believe when they saw him die, even after so many miracles. Hence Paul’s words: “We proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,” (1Cor1:23)… So when the Lord says: “Blessed is the one who takes no offence at me” does he not clearly refer to the humiliation and lowliness of his death? It is as though he had said openly: “Yes, it is true that I do wonderful things but I don’t refuse to suffer what is humiliating on that account. Since I am going to follow John the Baptist by dying, let people who venerate in me my miracles take care not to despise me in my death.”

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

One has to pass through the desert, spending time there, if one is to receive the grace of God. It is there that we empty ourselves, getting rid of everything that is not God, and completely emptying this little house of our souls to leave all the room to God alone. The Hebrews travelled through the desert, Moses lived there before he received his mission, Saint Paul and Saint John Chrysostom were also made ready in the desert … It is a time of grace, a period during which all souls who want to bear fruit necessarily have to pass. They need this silence, recollection and forgetfulness of all created things in the midst of which God establishes his reign and forms a spirit of interiority within them: life in intimacy with God, conversation of the soul with God in faith, hope and love. Later on, the soul will produce fruit in precisely the measure to which this interior man has been formed within it (Eph 3:16) … We can only give what we have, and it is in solitude, in that life alone with God alone, that profound recollection of the soul who forgets all else to live alone in union with God, that God gives himself wholly to the one who is thus given wholly to him. Give yourselves wholly to him alone … and he will give himself wholly to you … Look at Saint Paul, Saint Benedict, Saint Patrick, Saint Gregory the Great and so many others – what long periods of recollection and silence they spent! Go higher: look at Saint John the Baptist, look at our Lord. Our Lord had no need of it, but he wanted to set us an example.
Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team