He suddenly approached the old man in silence and softly kissed him on his bloodless aged lips. That was all his answer. (Christ’s behavior when condemned to death by the Grand Inquisitor in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov.)
Human language – be it spoken or written – may be analyzed or understood in two ways: with confidence in the value of what is spoken or written or with suspicion.
For instance W. C. Fields, whose attitude is summed up in quotes like, If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damned fool about it or Start every day off with a smile and get it over with, can be ranked among the suspicious interpreters of life. Then again there is the joke about two psychoanalysts who meet one morning in the elevator. One says to the other “Good morning.” The other leaves the elevator thinking, “I wonder what he meant by that.”
On the other hand we meet less skeptical people whose attitude toward life is summed up in songs (from the Depression Era) like: Grab your coat and get your hat / Leave your worry on the doorstep / Just direct your feet / To the sunny side of the street . . . I used to walk in the shade / With those blues on parade / But I’m not afraid / This Rover crossed over . . .
In today’s Gospel reading we meet some heavy duty priests and Levites sent down from the Temple in Jerusalem whose leaders maintain a suspicious view of reality. Their focus is on John the Baptist who dresses funny (if he dresses at all!) and eats grasshoppers. That’s enough to make anyone suspicious. Right away they probe his activities. Does he claim to be the Messiah, or the prophet Elijah come down from heaven, or the Prophet who is to come? “Who are you so that we can report to our superiors. Identify yourself.” Sounds like a motorcycle policeman asking for your I.D., being suspicious of your driving.
Indeed, we all can identify with such inquisitions in our lives – undergoing questioning about our behavior, competence or what’s worse, undergoing no inquiries because we’re not even worth noticing, a face in a crowd – maybe even a voice, but crying out in a wilderness of faces, of bank data or voter lists. But John the Baptist doesn’t share the constant wariness that goes with holding a job in the Temple bureaucracy or any bureaucracy. He voices hope, confidence that things are going to happen that prove suspicion to be unwittingly ready to cancel the future even if that future means the arrival of Christ among us. Suspicion clings to the familiar, the habits, the long established language, a mindset become axiomatic – the sure thing. Whereas John is confident enough about tomorrow that he can see the arrival of someone who will challenge the suspicious, the hesitant, the fixated of the world; the advent of someone whose sandals John feels unworthy to touch – so awesome, so hopeful, even so utopian will Christ’s Gospel be.
Has suspicion more than faith, hope and courageous love influenced your life, the way you talk, the way you think, the way you participate in both church and civil life? Did someone early on tell you to watch out not only for the non-values of Hollywood or the market place but also for people who didn’t look like you, believe like you; in other words to watch out in the sense of be on your guard? These Advent Gospels also tell you to watch out but more in the expectant sense of the phrase – confident that grace not evil will be your ultimate companion forever and ever, thanks be to God.