Nativity Catholic Church
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Appearances Can Be Deceiving
A "FIRESTARTER"
Spiritual Essay by Rev. Dr. Benjamin Berinti, C.Pp.S.
As a young man, I was often mistaken for being older than I was. While I’d like to think this had something to do with the air of confidence and maturity that I exuded, I suspect it had more to do with my early receding hairline! Many times this situation worked to my advantage, especially when it came to the need to be taken seriously by adults. It even worked well in my youth ministry days, since the young people didn’t realize that I wasn’t that much older than they were, and consequently suspected that I had more authority than I actually did! Most recently, however, this mistaken appearance hasn’t been as uplifting as it was when I was younger. Funny how that is—when you are young, you’d like to look a bit older; when you are older, you crave your youthful charms! I was standing in line at the McDonald’s, waiting for an early morning coffee before a day of reflection I was offering. When the teenage cashier told me the price, I momentarily thought I had misunderstood her; either that, or small decaf coffees were on sale that morning. I was happy to pay the lower price, but as I walked away and glanced down at the receipt, my happiness turned to disappointment—I had been charged the “Senior” rate! While I have lots of respect for my “seniors,” I’m not at all ready to be one—in spite of the 25¢ bargain! Appearances are often quite deceiving! As we draw closer to the days of Christmas, our scripture proclamations are continually reminding us of this same truth. Isaiah the prophet announces that the poor, the captives, and the brokenhearted are not who them seem to be. While on first glance, they may elicit our sympathies, God clearly has more in store for them than mere “sympathy.” In a rearranging of appearances, God intends to bring them such “glad tidings” that they will find themselves rich, rather than poor; liberated, rather than captive; mended and wholehearted, rather than broken. An eerie figure, who despite his ominous appearance, manages to draw people from the whole countryside into the desert, who not only hear his proclamation of reform, but who act upon it by being plunged into the waters of the Jordan River, that great dividing line in Israel’s history between slavery and freedom. While his listeners imagine him to be the “Messiah,” the Baptist clearly tells them they are deceived by his appearance as a “voice crying out in the desert.” He is not the Messiah, but simply a herald of the One who is yet to come, whose baptism will bring another kind of purification, one that water alone cannot accomplish. Indeed, the true Messiah will baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit! An old and decrepit woman, living in the hill country, appears to be well beyond her childbearing days, and yet, God visits Elizabeth and Zechariah and opens for them what appears “impossible”! Of course, there’s the other pregnant woman—this time, not one who is beyond the age, but perhaps just coming to age—who finds herself with child through the overshadowing power of God’s own Spirit! Just think of how many people and places and situations we look upon, or come into contact with each day, that we simply judge by appearances. We are especially prone to this when either we are so “familiar” that we wouldn’t think to see anything beyond our familiarities, or when we are so “distant” from someone or something that we can’t bother to take the time to know or understand what may be hidden beyond the first glance we take. And yet, God’s most preferred means of revelation seems to come about by upsetting our expectations, asking us to see with more than our eyes, challenging us to mistrust our first impressions, and reminding us that appearances are often deceiving. Is it any wonder then that we often “show up late” for the really important things in our lives? While we try to survive on a minimum amount of seeing beyond appearances, God is busy offering life and love to those with the patience and insight to second-guess what comes with the first glance. Where we are satisfied, God is stirring up disturbance. Where we are disturbed, God is laying a foundation for peace and consolation. Where we are snuggling in with our set formulae and regulations, God is opening the back door for rule-breakers. Where we are making plans, God is lovingly chuckling and then rewriting them. Perhaps it was only a 25¢ mistake, but in all honesty, judging my appearance to be that of a newly christened AARP member, pricked my vanity. But it was also a not-so-subtle reminder, in the midst of this season of surprises, that appearances can be deceiving—not only when dealing with adolescent McDonald’s cashiers, but clearly with God, who surprises us all with a baby in swaddling clothes and laying in a feed trough!
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