Daily Reflection with Aneel Aranha

So John summoned two of his disciples and sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” When the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’ ” Jesus had just then cured many people of diseases, plagues, and evil spirits, and had given sight to many who were blind. And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.” Very often, when we read Scripture, we are forced to speculate about why somebody did what they did or said what they said because their motives are not revealed. In the passage we are reflecting upon today, we find John the Baptist sending two of his disciples to Jesus to ask him a rather strange question: “Are you t...

“ What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ He answered, ‘I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir’; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him. In this Parable of the Two Sons, Jesus speaks about a father who tells his two boys to go and work in the vineyard. One says he will go, but doesn’t. The other says he won’t go, but does. Then Jesus asks a question that seems almost rhetorical: “Which of the two did the will of the father?” The answer, quite obviou...

When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things. One day Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Si...

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.                 This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.” Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”                                                                    H e said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the ...

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”   And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. Today’s passage speaks about a deeply personal moment in the lives of two holy women, Elizabeth and Mary. They are both pregnant with child, and both children are miraculous. Elizabeth conceives in her old age when her womb is barren (see Luke 1:7). And Mary, of course, conceive...

"But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’                                                  For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” There are some of us who are unteachable. We are so locked into our own ideologies, we are not open to the truth (even though very often we claim to be open minded). And we find a reason to spurn anything that is presented to us, often without any recourse to logic.  This is what Jesus is talking about here, when he says something that sounds like a riddle: “We playe...

Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John came; and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. Let anyone with ears listen! This is a very short passage and it seems very enigmatic, almost like a riddle, but once you realize that John the Baptist was the last of the “old order” and Jesus would usher in a “new order”, everything falls into place easily. So, what did Jesus mean when he says that among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist. Quite simply, prophets before him had predicted the coming of the Messiah, but John the Baptist would actually see him and testify about him. So why is he the least in the kingdom of heaven, then? Because although he has ...