Christianity is High Tech
Thursday, December 14, 2023
by Fr. David M. Knight
View readings for 2nd Thursday of Advent: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings
Lectionary no. 184 (Isaiah 41:13-20; Psalm 145; Matthew 11:11-15)
There has been none greater than John the Baptizer; yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he. Matthew 11:11
In Damon Runyan’s comic gangster stories, pistols were called “equalizers,” because they made a weak man stronger than the biggest man in town. That’s technology!
And Jesus says any Christian is greater than John the Baptizer. What did he mean?
People measured John by what they saw. He wore a camel skin hairshirt, and lived on bugs and wild honey (Mark 1:6). He was the champion oldtime prophet.
But people didn’t know yet about “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ”—the favor of “being Christ” by sharing in his divine life (Catechism of the Catholic Church 795). That’s high tech!
Anything Jesus does with us, in us, and through us as members of his body is better than anything we do by ourselves, no matter how impressive.
Jesus says living in union with God is greater than any merely human moral life, no matter how good. Paul meant this when he said we are “justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ” (Galatians 2:16).
Grace is the “great equalizer”: it enables us to act with Jesus instead of just alone.
Of course, John had grace too. It’s just that nobody knew it.
DAILY PRACTICE: Every time you keep a rule, make it a conscious response to Christ.
ADVENT PRAYER: Lord, let me act on the level of God!
Reflections brought to you by the Immersed in Christ Ministry
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