"BAIT"

Thursday in the 3rd Week of Advent
Lk 7:24-30

The name “John” means, “God is gracious”. I like it better in Tagalog: “Ang bait ng Diyos!”

Bait may mean either of the two: kindness or sanity. Both meanings may apply to John the Baptist, the precursor of the Lord.

When I say, “Ang bait mo naman”, I do not only mean that you are kind but that you are kind unexpectedly. This is the kind of bait that the neighbors of Zechariah and Elizabeth said about God when their son, John, was born. God’s kindness was unexpected not because God was not normally kind neither was it because Zechariah and Elizabeth were a couple undeserving of divine favor. God’s kindness was unexpected because both Zechariah and Elizabeth were already advanced in age when John was born. Moreover, Elizabeth, was known to be barren. John the Baptist was out of the ordinary right from the start. He was God’s kindness surprising not only Zechariah and Elizabeth but, perhaps, even more their neighbors.

When I say, “Nawawala siya sa kanyang sariling bait”, I am saying that he or she is out of his or her mind. When he grew up, John made the wilderness his permanent address, garbed himself with camel’s hair, and fed on locust and wild honey while calling people to repentance, baptizing them for the forgiveness of sins, and confronting King Herod of his adulterous relationship with Herodias. From being an out-of-the-ordinary blessing, people regarded John to be an out-of-his-mind guy. When John was born, people said, “Ang bait naman ng Diyos!”, but when he fulfilled his mission, many ridiculed him, “Heto na naman ang isang nawawala sa sariling bait.”

Bait – it can mean graciousness, it can mean sanity. To show it is to be kind. To be it is to be a blessing. To have it is to be sane. To have it not is to be mad.

John was God’s kindness and God’s folly at the same time. John was an absurdity in life. And that is exactly what graces are! Graces are absurdities in life. People who always go by the logic and technique, who always want to be in control of everything, very often miss the beauty and power of an unfolding grace. But when they finally realize the grace that has been given them, they call it a “blessing in disguise”. But there are no blessings in disguise because God does not give us blessings only to hide them from us. It is always our failure to recognize the grace that is given us. Just as in the case of John the Baptist, many people, sadly those belonging to the so-called “taong-templo”, “taong-simbahan”, the scribes and the Pharisees, failed to see the grace that was John.

Is there a John in your life?