Pointers

Seeing how all creation, including ourselves, points to Christ

03/30/2017

John 5:31-47 Jesus said to the Jews: "If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is not true. But there is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that the testimony he gives on my behalf is true. You sent emissaries to John, and he testified to the truth. I do not accept human testimony, but I say this so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light. But I have testimony greater than John's. The works that the Father gave me to accomplish, these works that I perform testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. Moreover, the Father who sent me has testified on my behalf. But you have never heard his voice nor seen his form, and you do not have his word remaining in you, because you do not believe in the one whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures, because you think you have eternal life through them; even they testify on my behalf. But you do not want to come to me to have life.

          I am a dog person, even though I do not have a dog. The most fascinating dog to me, though, is “the pointer,” or as we call them in the South, a “bird dog.” The pointer has been bred to flush out game for a hunter, or simply to point in the direction of hidden prey. Suddenly, the dog will freeze motionless, and its entire body will point – including its nose, torso, front leg, and even its tail sticking straight out – all toward the prey to help the hunter to see it before the prey sees the hunter. Actually, I find the dog more interesting than the bird. Every fiber of its being is created to point to something else.

          The French Jesuit priest, Fr. Teilhard de Chardin, suggested that the whole universe is like the pointer because it all points to Jesus. Every fiber of creation, including bird dogs, ultimately points to Jesus. Fr. Ron Rolheiser, a popular priest and speaker, explained in detail what Chardin meant, saying, “All reality, be it spiritual, physical, moral, mathematical, mystical, or hormonal is made and shaped according to the one, same pattern and everything (be it the universe itself hurtling through space, the blind attraction of atoms for each other, the relentless hunt for blood by a mosquito, the automatic impulse to put everything into his mouth by a baby, the erotic charge inside the body of an adolescent, the fierce protectiveness of a young mother, the obsession to create inside an artist, or the genuflection in prayer or altruism of a saint) is ultimately part of one and the same thing, the unfolding of creation as made in the image of Christ and as revealing the invisible God” (Blog, “The Cosmic Christ” Nov. 25, 2001). In other words, the whole universe is like a huge bird dog and it’s pointing to one Prey, namely, Jesus. Our “prey” is the One to whom we should “pray.”

          In the gospel of John chapter 5, Jesus explains how everything points to him, and he gives several examples. He says, “There is another who testifies on my behalf” namely John the Baptist. Later he says, “But I have testimony greater than John’s. The works the Father game me to accomplish, these works that I perform testify on my behalf.” Furthermore, he adds, “Moreover, the Father who sent me has testified on my behalf.” Finally, he mentions, “You search the Scriptures…even they testify on my behalf.” Jesus is saying to the Jews, “Look around you and you will see that everything is like a bird dog, pointing at its prey with every fiber of its being, and that prey is me. I pray you find the prey all these pointers are showing you!” But they missed it.

          My friends, I want you to ask yourself today a deep question, and I don’t want you to settle for shallow answers. Ask yourself: why do I do the things I do? Why do I like to drink martinis or chai lattes? Why did we go to Disney World for Spring Break? Why do I love my children? Why do I move every year to be closer to my grandchildren? Why did I marry this man?  Why did I marry this woman? Why do I cheer for the Razorbacks? Why do I vote Republican? Why do I vote Democrat? Why do I love to each chocolate? Why do I play video games? Why did I get up to come to Mass this morning? Why do I do anything? May I suggest to you that every urge and every impulse and every excitement you feel really points beyond itself to Jesus? Just like in the gospel, John the Baptist and the Father and the Scriptures, so, too, all creation, and even every one of your choices, points, like a bird dog, to Jesus. Pope St. John Paul II, in his very first encyclical, began with these stunning words, he wrote: “The Redeemer of man, Jesus Christ, is the center of the universe and of history” (Redemptor hominis, 1).  Every fiber of the universe points to Christ.

          Of course, most of us won’t figure this out until after we die and meet Jesus face to face. On that day, we’ll say, “Oh, you are the One my whole life was pointing to, and I missed it!” How cool would it be to figure that out before we die?

          Praised be Jesus Christ!