(This homily was given on Second Sunday in Ordinary Time on January 17, 1993 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I. by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Isaiah 49:3, 5-6 ; 1 Cor 1:1-3 ; John 1: 29-34.)

"Pointing the Way to Christ"

The message of today's homily can best be summarized by conjugating the Verb "point" in the present tense:

I point
You point
He points
She points
We point
You (plural) point
They point

Now I know what you're thinking: Fr. Ray, don't you know that it's impolite to point? The guru of etiquette, Miss Manners, tells us so. Well let it be known I agree with Miss Manners, if, by pointing, you're referring to the practice of taking your index finger and waving it , wildly under somebody else's nose. That is definitely rude, crude and socially unacceptable. But you see, there is another dimension to the idea of pointing. And from this other perspective it is not impolite to point--it's a fact of life to point. In this sense, everybody points. I point, you point, he points, she points, we point, you (plural) point, they point. Believe it or not, even Miss Manners points. I hope she wouldn't be scandalized to hear me say that!

Fr. Ray, just what are you getting at here?

Well, first of all take a look at today's gospel. Here we have a great example of a pointer in action. Here we see a pointer doing some pointing. John the Baptist spots Jesus off in the distance and he immediately responds by pointing: he points other people toward the lord. He cries out, "Look, there is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." In other words, "Look there. Follow Him. He's the Savior. He's the one you've been waiting for. He's the one you need". Now whether he actually took his index finger and pointed it in the direction of Jesus is not clear. He might have--he probably did, but we don't know for sure. The text doesn't say. But the fact remains: by his words John the Baptist pointed to the Lord. However, (and I hope everyone realizes this) that was not enough. John the Baptist also pointed to Jesus by his actions, and that's what made him great. You see, by the time today's gospel event took place, John had attracted quite a following. He had people coming to him from all over the place. But once John had announced to the people, "Look, there is the Lamb of God", he immediately began to draw back. Slowly but surely, he made a conscious effort to fade out of the picture. As he himself said, "Jesus must now increase, while I must decrease." John pointed to the lord verbally and with his deeds. He didn't say one thing and then act as if he believed something else. He didn't tell the crowds, "Follow Jesus" and then act as if he still wanted people to follow him. No way. John was consistent.

So often today, my brothers and sisters, we are not consistent. And this inconsistency is the source of so many of our personal and social problems. You see, the hard truth is this: we are always pointing-- we are always pointing with our words and we are always pointing with our actions. Either we are pointing toward Christ and the things of Christ, or we are pointing away from Christ. This is why I said earlier that pointing is a fact of life. Even if we are not aware of it, we're doing it. And so the difficulties come either when our words and actions point away from Christ or (and this is much more common) when our words and actions pointing in opposite directions. There's a wonderful example of this last phenomenon in an anti-drug commercial that you see from time to time on TV. A father goes into his son's bedroom with some illegal Drugs in his hand, drugs that he found in his son's possession. And he immediately begins to yell at the boy. Finally he says to him, "Where did you learn to do this stuff? Who taught you?" The boy replies, "I learned it from you. I learned by watching you." Here we have a father a who was pointing his son in one direction with his words:("son, don't do drugs. They're not good for you, they'll fry your brain") and in the exact opposite direction with his actions. He was an addict himself.

How easy it is for all of us to fall into this pattern of opposite direction pointing. Consider the man who spends most of his free time in the local bar room and then tells his children and friends, "Don't Get drunk. Don't abuse alcohol." Now the, thing is, he may never get drunk himself, but just being in the bar for extended periods of time gives a message, a message that's the opposite of the one he's giving with his mouth. Or how about the person who spends night after night in the local casino but tells others, "Don't gamble excessively. Know Your limits." Once again, he may not be gambling excessively himself, but unconsciously he is pointing in two directions. This can even be a problem in the area of evangelization. If we are telling somebody else, "Friend, you need to go back to church, you need to make God first in your life,"; then we need to be making the Lord first in our life. If we're only doing the bare minimum, if we're only fulfilling our obligations as Catholics, then we will be giving a mixed message. With our words we'll be saying, "you make god #1" but with our actions we'll be saying, "For me god is not #1 . Oh yeah -- He's in the top 10 -- but He's not #1.

Perhaps one of the reasons that we as individuals often point people in opposite directions is because we live in a society that trains us to. For example, in our country today young people are pointed in one direction by certain individuals and told to abstain from sex until marriage, and then they're immediately pointed in the opposite direction by these same individuals and given detailed instructions on how not to abstain. And in some cases they're even given the equipment to use when they decide not to abstain. People are pointed in one direction and told to respect life and property, and then in the next breath they're told that the life of a baby in it's mother's womb doesn't matter. "Oh, it's just a cluster of cells, it's just a bit of tissue, so if you feel like it, kill it."

People are pointed in one direction and told that women should be respected as persons, and then those same people are pointed in the exact opposite direction by a society which says that the portrayal of women as sex objects in pornographic magazines and movies is ok. "Hey man, that's free speech. Oh sure, I respect women--now pass me the playboy."

The Lord God asks us, the Lord God challenges us today to look at our pointing, because all of us need improvement. None of us is perfect. In some areas our words may point to Christ and our actions may point away from him. In other areas our actions may point to Christ and our words may point away from Him. Let me tell you, if you give into the temptation to curse the person in front of you when you leave the parking lot after mass, you fall into this category. Here you come to church and perform a lot of holy actions, then you leave and say a lot of unholy words. Obviously, as I said earlier, what we need to strive for is consistency. We should want our words and our actions, like those of John the Baptist, to consistently point to Jesus.

I point to Jesus.
You point to Jesus.
He points to Jesus.
She points to Jesus.
We point to Jesus.
You all point to Jesus.
They point to Jesus.

Think about how wonderful it would be--in our families, in our country, in our world; if all of those sentences were true all of the time. Actually, (believe it or not) it would be more than wonderful. May all of us do our part to make it happen.