The Social Universe

Keeping Jesus in the center

 John 1:6-8, 19-25

              A man named John was sent from God. He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to testify to the light. And this is the testimony of John. When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to him to ask him, “Who are you?” He admitted and did not deny it, but admitted, “I am not the Christ.” So they asked him, “What are you then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.” So they said to him, “Who are you, so we can give an answer to those who sent us? What do you have to say for yourself?” He said: “I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘make straight the way of the Lord,’” as Isaiah the prophet said.”

            Everyone loves babies!  Raise your hand if you don’t love babies.  Exactly.  Everyone loves babies because even when they are bald they are beautiful; their fat rolls are actually a sign of being healthy, and sometimes even their poop smell good!  Whenever a baby enters the room, all eyes turn towards it, and all hearts melt.  Have you noticed how people make perfect fools of themselves trying to get the baby’s attention or to make it laugh?  Now, all this lavish love and adoring attention is healthy for the baby’s psychosocial development, according to the renowned psychologist Erik Erickson.  The baby feels like the sun at the center of the human universe, everyone and everything revolves around it.  Once a baby was crying at Mass while Archbishop Fulton Sheen was preaching, and the mother finally took the baby outside.  After Mass the archbishop found the lady and said, “Madam, your baby was not bothering me.”  The lady replied, “No, I left because you were bothering the baby.”  So, even priests revolve around babies.

            But Erikson also recognized that the baby must mature and realize it is not the sun at the center of the social solar system.  It must learn to share with others, to wait its turn in line, to even love others more than himself or herself.  This process of discovering one’s own identity is felt most acutely in adolescence.  Mark Twain once famously quipped: “When I was a boy of seventeen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around.  But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in four years!”  Of course, it wasn’t his father who learned something, it was Twain.  He learned to stop putting himself at the center of the social universe by appreciating and loving others.  Sooner rather than later we must all learn we’re not the sun at the center of the social universe.

            In the gospel today we meet the one man whose job it was to tell us who should be at the center of the social universe, that is, we meet St. John the Baptist.  Listen to how the gospel of John – that was a different John – describes John the Baptist: “A man named John was sent from God.  He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.”  The gospel touches the core of John’s identity, that is, “he was not the light, but came to testify to the light.”  And later, when John is asked if he’s the Christ, the gospel repeats: “He admitted and did not deny it but admitted, ‘I am not the Christ’.”  I am sure John the Baptist also experienced Erickson’s stages of development from baby to adolescent to adult.  But as John moved out of center stage, he taught that Jesus is the “Son” at the center of the social universe.  In other words, the social universe should revolve around Jesus, the true light.

            Now, sometimes, helping move people out of the center of the universe can backfire.  One day a man came to Mass still hungover from a drinking binge the night before.  He fell asleep during the priest’s sermon, and so the priest decided to make an example of him.  He said softly to the congregation: “All those wishing to go to heaven, please stand.”  The whole room stood up, except the sleepy man, of course.  Then the priest said more loudly: “And he who would like a place in hell, please stand up!”  The weary man, catching only the last part, groggily rose to his feet, only to realize he was the only one standing.  Confused, he said, “I don’t know what we’re voting on here, Father, but it seems you and me are the only ones standing for it!”

            Today, ask yourself this question: “Who or what is at the center of my social universe?”  What is the most important person or thing in my life that makes everything else secondary?  Of course, we’d all LIKE to answer: “Well, it’s Jesus, naturally!”  But not so fast.  Here’s an easy litmus test to see if Jesus really is the center of your life.  Is there anything that really bothers you or absolutely annoys about other people – maybe their driving, maybe how they eat their foot too fast or slurp their coffee, how they snore, children who cry in church, priests who preach meandering mindless homilies, mother-in-laws who are busy-bodies or daughter-in-laws who are not good enough for my son, a bishop who has all the wrong priorities, a president who doesn’t work with congress, terrorists and Taliban, Republicans and Razorbacks?  Whenever we feel like the 17 year old Mark Twain and declare: “That person or group is so ignorant I can hardly stand to be around them,” realize that in 4 more years you might feel very differently.  In other words, you are still standing at the center of your social universe, not Jesus.

             Here’s another example.  Have you noticed how people use the word “Christmas”?  They say, “We’re going to have Christmas at grandma’s and then we’re going to have Christmas at Uncle Jimmy’s, and then we’re finally going to come home and have Christmas at our house.”  What does “Christmas” mean for them?  It means the moment we open presents, not the moment of Christ’s birth.  Folks, Christmas is a birthday, not a moment to open presents.  When we use that language, we’ve put gifts at the center of Christmas, rather than Jesus.

             That’s why the ancient Greek Temple at Delphi had only two words written above the door as your entered, “Know Thyself.”  Most of us don’t know ourselves very well; we don't know we are still standing at the center of the social universe.  We believe we’re like the cute, chubby baby that everyone else should gush over and look silly trying to make us smile and laugh.

             Every Christmas we celebrate the birthday of Jesus, who comes to us as a little, bald, chubby baby.  Jesus was the only Baby not only born at the center of the social universe, but he was the only one who was supposed to stay there.  Only Jesus is the light, not John the Baptist, not anyone else, not Christmas presents, and certainly not you or me.

             Praised be Jesus Christ!