The late Colombian Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos was a prominent bishop in Latin America. Pope St. John Paul II appointed him to a very important position at the Vatican. As it often happens, there was speculation about who would be the next pope. In the early 2000s, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos was one of those speculated to be a possible successor of pope St. John Paul II. Someone once asked Cardinal Castrillon about being one of the candidates to become pope. Paraphrasing his answer, he said something like, "I would feel honored if Pope John Paul II would say a prayer at my grave."
I was reminded of these words from Cardinal Castillon Hoyos this week as I reflected on the readings for this Sunday.
St. John the Baptist dispelled the doubts of the people who believed he was the expected Messiah. St. John was
self-effacing. All his preaching was based on a mysterious person who would come after him, who was more powerful than him. He said, "I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals" (Luke 3:16). “Mighty” or the “Mighty One” is a term usually applied to God himself in the Bible.
The prophet Zephaniah refers to God that way in today’s first reading, "Jerusalem, the Lord your God, is in your midst, a mighty savior." (Zephaniah 3:17).
The act of untying the straps of a master's sandals was the task of a slave. There were slaves in Israel, foreign and Hebrew slaves. Untying the master’s sandals was seen by later Jewish sources as a task so menial that a Hebrew slave was exempt from it. St. John the Baptist put himself in an even lower position than that of a foreign slave! He understood that in the presence of God, we are nothing.
St. John the Baptist is again the distinctive theme of the Gospel for this third Sunday of Advent. Today I would like to highlight St. John the Baptist’s humility. His lifestyle was that of a very humble person, without pretense. He lived in the desert not in a palace, and he ate insects and honey and dressed in camel skin. He encouraged people to live a simple life and to share with the needy. St. John the Baptist is a fitting example of humility during Advent. He teaches us that it is impossible to celebrate the Lord’s birth except in an atmosphere of joyful simplicity and concern for the poor and marginalized.
Humility is the most important Christian virtue. Humility is the willingness to serve God and neighbor. Humility feels at home being unrecognized and prefers the good of others to one's own. The Lord says in the gospel of Matthew, “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike” (11:25). The Lord praises his Heavenly Father for turning away from the wise and the learned and seeking instead the humble. Humility follows this same divine movement. Humility instinctively follows the movement of the Lord as he washed the feet of the disciples and waited on them at the table.
Humility is spontaneous, not forced. We all knew about St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who often met authorities and dignitaries. It is said that Mother St. Teresa of Calcutta always sought out the humblest person in the room to be around.
The liturgy of Mass invites us to be humble. Our gestures and words express the humility that is in our hearts when we come to receive the Lord in the Holy Eucharist. When the priest invites the people to start the procession for communion, the people while in the kneeling position, paraphrase the words of the humble Centurion of the Gospel, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed" (Matthew 8:8).
We need to always exercise the basic Christian virtue of humility, because our life is a permanent Advent, it is preparation for the definitive coming of the Lord into our lives. Let us humbly ask the Lord to give us his grace to imitate St. John the Baptist and live lives of joyful humility.