Yesterday I drove home from a few days in New
York
We started up the navigation app on my cell phone
and plugged it into the digital radio jack.
This new app, called Waze, not only guides you on a
route to follow (I didn’t need that),
But also gives you up-to-the-minute reports on the
road conditions ahead.
Thousands of travelers constantly feed in
information by tapping icons on their phones.
They report if they see a wreck, a breakdown, a
slowdown—or a police car.
The system is instantly updated and immediately alerts
everyone of any problems on their route.
Two hundred years ago, no one could imagine such communications
and technology.
People hadn’t yet seen cars or telephones or radios
or even the telegraph.
A few science fiction writers might have imagined
such possibilities.
But no realistic, practical person really believed that
future world would ever exist.
It was unbelievable, incredible, fantastic!
And yet, it was true!
Today we take it all for granted.
We’re used to it, it’s familiar, it’s hardly
surprising, we expect even more.
We see science and technology advancing so rapidly,
we can imagine almost anything.
Not just in communications and transportation, but in
medicine, space, agriculture, construction,
And in any area where we can see science and
technology playing a role.
Thinking about that, and reading today’s Gospel,
It struck me that we also take a lot for granted in
our understanding of Jesus.
Especially us cradle Catholics, us cradle
Christians.
We’ve heard the Gospel since our early childhood.
Our parents and our church instilled it in us.
We’re not like those Pharisees in today’s Gospel.
We don’t have to look at Jesus in puzzled disbelief
and say, Who are you anyway?
We know who Jesus is.
And that’s good.
It’s good to have that deep-seated faith and
conviction.
And it comes in handy when we find ourselves
struggling in a period of doubt.
But taking that faith and knowledge too much for
granted has its downside.
It can dampen our full appreciation of just who Jesus
really is.
We can forget to be awe-struck.
Yes, Jesus was a man.
But he was also God.
He said so plainly and straight-forwardly many
times—in today’s Gospel passage and others.
And yet he became one of us to teach us how to
live.
He called us his brothers, his family.
He died for us to conquer death.
He opened the way for us to eternal life.
He chooses to dwell within us and among us—forever.
Do we really grasp and appreciate all that?
That’s incredible!
That’s fantastic!
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