then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things.”
Where did John’s baptism come from? From heaven or from people?”
They discussed this among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say,
‘Then why did you not believe him?’ And if we say,
‘The baptism of John was merely something human’, we’ve got to beware of the people,
for all consider John to be a prophet.”
So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them,
“Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

REFLECTION:
The Jews in Jesus’ time were not willing to listen to John the Baptist,
the last of the pro­phets. We, too, may miss the lessons that God may be tea­ching us in the events of our lives.
So we must indeed pray, “Teach me your ways, O Lord.”
Our Saint of today, St. John of the Cross, is a great teacher of the ways of the Lord.
He is one Saint who plumbed the depths of the ways of the Lord.
He understood and lived the way of the Lord, the way of the Cross! When we reflect on the life of St.
John of the Cross we cannot but be amazed at how he embraced the Cross. Humiliation, suffe­ring,
darkness was the path of sanctification for John of the Cross. Thus, our prayer is ultimately :
“Lord, teach me to welcome the Cross in my life.”
The way of the Lord is the “via crucis.” But we do not need to go looking for extraordinary suffering.
We have quite enough of our daily ordinary trials and difficulties.
Often it is just that we complain too quickly at every discomfort or difficulty.
Instead, we must see these little crosses as “the way of the Lord!”

© Copyright Bible Diary 2020