There was once a man named John Williams who lived in Piqua, Ohio, a highway patrolman and a civilian inspector who checks vehicles for defects and safety in four counties. He inspects at least 2000 vehicles a month which in most cases are highly unusual. One morning they stopped a Cadillac in Shelby county and found several pigs (hogs) in the backseat. John, who was taken aback said, “I’d been on the job for years and I never seen anything like this, Hey Mister, there were big clumps of mud as big as your fist all over the car, it looked like a barnyard”. When the owner of the car was asked if he thought it was a bit strange to be hauling swines in a new Cadillac, he answered, “If it weren’t for all my pigs, I wouldn’t be able to drive a Cadillac!”.

This Sunday’s Gospel has a twofold theme, Credit and Joy.

When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him, “Who are you?” he admitted and did not deny it, but admitted,

“I am not the Messiah.”

So they asked him, “What are you then? Are you Elijah?”

And he said, “I am not.”

“Are you the Prophet?”

He answered, “No.”

So they said to him, “Who are you, so we can give an answer to those who sent us? What do you have to say for yourself?”

He said:

“I am ‘the voice of one crying out in the desert, Make straight the way of the Lord, as Isaiah the prophet said.”

For info’s sake, John the Baptist had so many followers at that time. To have followers in a socio-political Judea is like being stamped as a revolutionary leader. That’s why the Jews and Pharisees kept on interrogating him because they are threatened and afraid that John the Baptist would cause another uprising, which unfortunately prevailed at that time.

But John the Baptist in all honesty, did not took the credit away from the true “Messiah”. He admitted that he was not. With the popularity that he acquired at that time, he could have easily told his followers that “I am he” who cometh. But he did not. He gave the credit to whom it is due.

Throughout the history of the world, many had claimed that they were the savior, the messiah, the chosen one, which resulted into many delusional leaders in the past and in the present, just because they all cried “I arm the messiah”, “I am the savior of the world”, doesn’t mean we are all obliged to follow and believe them. Same with the false Messiahs of our time.

If you watched the 80′s movie “Footloose”, the reverend pastor in that film (John Lithgow) was so dedicated in saving the souls of his flock that he forgot that the job he was taking was already that of the Lord’s. His wife (Dianne Wiest) told him, “you are not the messiah to save their souls”.

Taking this instance from what I learned in Psychiatry and Psychology, this neurosis is called “Messiah Complex” Messiah Complex is a state in which the individuals believe themselves to be, or destined to become, the savior of the particular field, a group, an event, a time period, or in an extreme scenario, the world. People with a messiah complex tend to see themselves as saviors to a specific group of people or a specific field, making claims of their own glory, or claiming a self-awareness of their own gift and how that gift can affect a group of people or a field of life.

We are sometimes so drunk with power that we are so delusional as to claim that we are the savior of mankind. We self-righteously lift ourselves so high that we would need to stoop down in order to see heaven.

Just like what Reynz recently wrote about a certain blogger who unwittingly separated the chaff from the grains and called his friends as the “messiah” of the Philippine blogosphere while we unknown and nameless bloggers are the dirt and mud that is needed to be cleaned, such ridiculous claim are only intended to polish their already rusty and tetanus-infected crowns.

We tend to forget that no one among us bloggers are the rightful savior of each other, and everyone’s blog for that matter. We are so delusional of our self-importance that we idiotically cause division and chaos instead of saving others. It is a Phariseean mentality which causes us to pull others down, demean people as someone who needs help, well in fact and in truth, we ourselves are the ones who needed salvation the most. To check on other’s flaws is like overlooking the speck on our very own eyes.

No one has the right to claim to be the “messiah” among us whether in political, social, medical or in spiritual spheres of our lives, except the Lord himself. The power and fame that was given to you are in truth, credited to the many nameless bloggers who continue to color the blogosphere with all kinds of hues–famous or not, with ads or not, pinoys or not.

And as what ST. Thomas More wrote in his book “Utopia“.. “the daily rustics for which your very glory stands on demands respect and dignity just like you demand it from others”

Proper and due Credit is given to no one except to God alone who gave you the hands to type your words, the grace to think of a topic, the eyes to read a post, and the resources for you to utilize on your own blog. He and He alone is the reason why we are here in the first place and no one can lay claim that they are the rightful Messiah of anyone.

Let me share to you an example of the kind of Messiah Complex that I have experienced here in the Blogosphere. A certain Blog Pharisee was so angry at my post, which I never even bothered naming him or anyone else for that matter, left an amusing comment on my blog, which I excerpted for the purpose of clarity of context:

now, cable networks routinely ask me to guest on shows that require a blogger?s perspective on issues and national concerns.

I (along with the other winners) personify the new blogger.

Outside of blogging, I?m a medical student in the top medical school in the country.

I?m one of the best collegiate debaters in the Philippines.

On top of this, I have obligations to my basketball team and my heavy metal rock band. You have the nerve to trivialize us?

Get this, punk. YOU HAVE NOTHING ON ME.

You see, when we begin to pull our own chairs and lift ourselves high so that others would respect us and look up to us at the expense of others, we begin to feel the pull of gravity, slowly changing our trajectory until we finally plummet to the ground.

The reason why so many people are so unhappy is because of the fact that they credit to themselves all of their successes in life, all of their awards and all of their empty achievements. It’s always “I and we alone” and not “you and me together”.

Joy is not achieved by the numbers of your followers, by the numbers of your trophies, by the numbers of your alliance, BUT by the numbers of people you share your triumph with. For without them you are nothing!

Joy is such an elusive grace for those who are selfish, mean, arrogant, self-righteous and proud. For it is in contentment on your own stature in life and the satisfaction of the thought that you are just a “part” of the greater whole, wherein joy begins to flow to one’s soul.

Like John the Baptist, we are not the “messiah”. Is it that hard for a man to accept the fact that the credit is not due to him alone, that we are not capable of cleaning the blogosphere or saving the world even if we are so delusional to even think ourselves as someone who deserve importance rather than giving importance to others?

Like Mary, whose magnificat serves as our psalm for this week, She magnified the Lord in her own words, for it is in his goodness and mercy that He raised Mary to be Immaculately Conceived for the sole purpose of the Incarnation of His Son, Jesus Christ. I wish everyone could take the striking example of Mary, Giving to God all the Glory while she remains contented on being nameless and unknown during her time.

To clean the entirety of a whole is to clean first and foremost the part of the whole. And when we begin with ourselves and give credit to the God alone, It is there that the Grace of God is rubbed on us which is why we are made known in the first place. Without the Grace of God, which enables others to see the goodness in us, we would never have such admirations and respect from others because it is only GOD alone who can gives us the sight to have a second look on to goodness what others doesn’t see.

If you do not understand my point, it is probably that you are so preoccupied with yourself that reading this post still causes you to think of yourself other than the message of the Gospel, which I am blogging about right from the very start of this page.

There is Joy in every credit we give due to others and of God because we know in ourselves that we are not here for selfish reasons of claiming status above others but to serve them with all the God given talents that we received.

It is such a lonely spectacle to behold yourself being alone at the top while others below you, are joyfully heralding the Lord, to whom where all credit is due.

Actually the Irony is, when God comes for his second coming, He might pass you by, for heaven’s eyes are staring on earth, and not on the clouds in which you are standing on.

And as we celebrate this Sunday, the beginning of the week, the Gaudete Sunday or the Joyful Sunday of the third week of Advent, sing with me, not only with the choirs of angels above, but also the voices of thousands of unknown bloggers and newbies, a song of Joy and Exorcism…

Melt the clouds of FAME, POWER and RUDENESS
Drive the dark of PRIDE away
Drive it away, Giver of immortal gladness!
Fill us, Fill us with the light of Day!

This Sunday, drive away all the negative spirits, bitterness and ridiculous Messiah complex of people around us especially of the elitists bloggers, for today is the day we rejoice, as the birth of the Lord is near, so near that others begin to look like Christmas Grinches. Who cares if you have Ka pepe or ads on your blog? who cares if you are on blogspot or in wordpress.com? Who cares if you are famous or not? The Blogosphere is for everyone and is not intended for puritans and charlatans of the third kind.

Whether one blogger sell his blogger soul to the Devil for a price, does that make other bloggers evil too? For the fault of one is the fault of everyone? that only the questiuonable few are considered and canonized as the saints of the over-romanticized sacredness of blogging?

The Sanctity of blogging cannot be determined by the stones we throw on other bloggers, for even St. Magdalene was almost subjected to such judgment. Sanctity of blogs starts on knowing thyself. For you can never understand others (why they work so hard on ads and monetized blogs), relate with others and emphatize with others if you dont know your self. And most likely, you’ll end up diverting all the credits towards yourself: A paradox of what John the Baptist had done.

Rejoice, for the Lord gave you a blog. There is only one John the Baptist crying in the desert, purifying the sacred way of the Lord, and we are not HIM! Not even the slightest resemblance.

O, Joyful Joyful, Lord we adore THEE!

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Gospel Readings for Gaudete Sunday or the 3rd Sunday of Advent
First Reading: Isaiah 61:1-2,10-11
Responsorial Psalm: Lk 1:46-48,49-50,53-54
Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
Holy Gospel: John 1:6-8.19-28

Prayer for the Advent Wreath

Lord, our God, we praise You for Your Son, Jesus Christ,
for He is Emmanuel, the Hope of all people.
He is the Wisdom that teaches and guides us.
He is the Savior of us all.
O Lord,
let your blessing come upon us as we light
two (purple) candles and the third (pink) of this wreath.
May the wreath and its light be a sign of Christ?s promise of salvation.
May He come quickly and not delay.
We ask this in His holy name. Amen.