Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Bible Text: “The child grew and become strong in spirit”. Luke 1. 57-66, 80

In a classroom, pupils were asked about what they want in life when they grow up. One said, he wished to be an engineer, another one has an ambition to be a teacher, a doctor and still others hope to have a decent profession someday. However, there was one who has a very bizarre ambition in life. He said, I wanted to be become a saint. They are the ones who I see every time my Dad brings me to the church. I want to be one of them.

Saint John the Baptist was described in the gospel as the child who grew and strong in Spirit. Among the creatures of God, human is the only one who has immortal soul which means whose soul is born to eternity. This is the very reason that deep inside our being is the desire to live forever. The Spirit that is being mentioned in the gospel is not an ordinary life principle that which gives life to human body. It is the Spirit given by God. It is the life that is given by God. It simply follows that we have to be aware that we are in this world but we are not for the world, we are rather destined for eternity. Each one of us has a goal or goals that we want to achieve in life. We want to discover where we are good at and normally that will give us a guide to what kind of career we are going to pursue. The gospel is inviting us that whatever we want to pursue in life, it should be founded in our spiritual life. We have to grow in both aspect of our life spiritual and intellect together with our skills and talents. We have to teach our children not only to progress in economic field of interest but also in spiritual life. We would like to see children in the near future who are not only successful in their career but also have grown in spiritual life. We want to see them someday as Christian doctors, engineers, teachers and priests.

Now that we are celebrating the feast of the birth of Saint John the Baptist, we are being reminded by this kind of Christian obligation. This is his life and this is also that best kind of life that we can form for the future generation of the world. Authentic progress covers all aspects of human life. Failure of one could create chaos in the community but progress of all creates bright future for our society.