The gospel tells us today that a certain time the Baptist had doubts about Jesus being the true Messiah. He had placed his hopes on the wrong signs. He expected a judge, hard on sinners; he saw instead one who was endeavoring to save and recover what was lost. He does not condemn the sinners, sweep away those who are not just; instead he eats with them and boasts of being their friend. He warns that the poor should not be put out and that the weak reed should not be crushed. He never destroys anything and seeks to recover and repair what had been ruined. He does not burn up sinners; he changes their hearts and wants them to be happy at all cost. He has words of salvation for all those who have given up hope and are being shunned like lepers. He is not discouraged by any of man’s problems, he doesn’t give up even in front of death. And so he presents himself to the envoys of the Baptist as the Messiah by listing six signs as we saw in today’s readings: the blind see again, the lame walk, the deaf hear, lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised to life and Good News is proclaimed to the poor. These are all signs of salvation and not of condemnation!
The question remains to us: What signs can we offer people today to convince them that the Messiah is among them? The disciples of Christ have to keep on being signs of what their master did: they must help their fellow men and women, feed the hungry, cure their diseases, be champions of the oppressed, emigrants and the refugees, and last but not the least be the enemies of sin.