The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

"What went you out to see?"

In today's Gospel we see men out looking for something. St. John (from prison) has sent his disciples to see Christ. And now after the disciples of John have seen and heard and go their way, then Christ asks the people what in John did they go out to see.

We are constantly in search of something. There seems to be an innate desire in us to search out and to see new things and new places. There is this burning desire to see and to know.

The people went out to see St. John the Baptist because he was a holy man and was preaching baptism and penance. He was a prophet, and as Christ says "more than a prophet. He was the Angel sent to prepare the way for Christ.

Many came to Christ to see and to hear Him and to witness with their own eyes the miracles that He performed.

But this inherent curiosity is often vain and empty. No sooner do we see that which we came to see and then we are off to see something new and different. So many, who came to see St. John, after they had seen went their way looking for something else. Their curiosity had been sated on this point, now they must find a new curiosity to pursue.

St. Augustine expresses this sentiment in his Confessions: "Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in thee",(B. i, c. i).

Our hearts are restless because we are constantly in search of something that will fill and satisfy us. We indulge a wanderlust looking for something and we do not even realize what it is that we are looking for.

The multitude went out into the desert to see St. John, but Christ asks "What went you out to see?" Was it a reed shaken with the wind? Or a man clothed in soft garments? or a prophet? or even the Christ? Christ answers His own question. The people went out to see a prophet. But no sooner do they see and hear and they are off again looking for something else. In this instance this is a good thing. St. John's entire purpose was to point out and to lead people to Christ. But after the people had seen and heard Christ, what did they do next? We see them welcoming Christ into Jerusalem as a king and then in a few days crying out for His blood. How fickle man is in this wanderlust! Even when he has before him all that he should love and desire; the only thing that can fill him and make him eternally happy, he still goes off looking for something else. How few learn as St. Augustine did that our only rest and happiness is in knowing and loving God.

Nothing has really changed in these two thousand years. Our hearts are still restless and we don't seem to know where or how to find this peace and repose that we are constantly in search of. Religion has been abused and misused by so many that there is now a multitude of different "Christian" faiths. And people wander from one to the other looking for one or the other that will satisfy their desires. But, just as there is only one God and only one Jesus Christ, so there is only one true Church.

There are few that find it and of those that do find it there are even fewer who realize what they have found and treasure it, because in it they have found the only place that can give them true peace and contentment. All too many enter the Church then set out once more looking for an easier way or a different way that will satisfy their passions and desires. But as St. Augustine tells us from his own experience, they will be constantly restless, constantly searching until they return to God and learn to rest in Him. Only in God and therefore only in His One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church can we find true love, peace, and restfulness.

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