I have no idea if this is actually an ancient proverb, nor do I recall exactly where I heard it, but since it suits my purposes here, I will blindly trust that some wise man said it at some point. I once heard that the greatest curse you could wish upon someone is to say, “May you live in interesting times, and may you get exactly what you ask for.”

The second part holds especially true in prayer. So often people only turn to the Lord in moments of great duress and when they are in some great need, and they request some very specific, short term solution. In those situations where we get our way, oftentimes we ultimately end up seeing that asking for God’s gifts without a fundamental openness to His will means that we shortchange ourselves and opt out of God’s plan for us, and end up the worse for it. The most repeated case of this I have seen over the years is when people ask for patience, and what they receive seems to be trial upon trial upon trial. 

This doesn’t mean that God has abandoned them or not heard their prayer, but rather that God is granting them patience as well as the opportunity to exercise that particular virtue. Patience does not exist in the absence of suffering. Prudence cannot exist without a difficult choice. Fortitude cannot exist without something opposing us. 
 
With this in mind, as we come to the celebration of Ordinary Time, I wonder about the ramifications of John the Baptist’s ministry. He spends his entire public life preparing people for the coming of the Lord, and inevitably, the Savior comes to him in the desert. At this point, John must decrease in order that people’s hearts may be open not to the great prophet, but to the one he has been proclaiming. At the great
moment of the culmination of his life’s work, he is suddenly overshadowed.

There must have been some sense of trepidation at the future for John when this came to pass. What was his role now that the Savior was walking among His people? What would he do with the rest of his life? But with great humility, he stands aside and tells the people that this is the one who comes after him, the one whose sandals he is unworthy to fasten. He has fulfilled his mission and now he turns everything over to the savior. 

The last line of the beautiful prayer, the Litany of Humility, of which I have spoken
before in my columns, leads us to ask for the same grace that John the Baptist possessed. That is, the grace to clear the way for the Savior in the lives of others, and not grow envious if they should surpass us. “Lord, that others might become holier than me, provided I am as holy as I ought to be, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.” As we enter into the season of ordinary time and begin a new decade, may this prayer always be on our lips. May we do everything in our power to grow closer to Christ, but above all else, may we always be ready to set others on the journey to holiness, to happiness, to Christ. 

Prayers always,
Fr. McC