12/15/2016 - Thursday of the 3rd week of Advent - Luke 7:24-30

      There is a famous building in Chicago called the Tribune Tower, located in the heat of the downtown on Michigan Avenue right near the Chicago River.  Housing the publisher of the great Chicago Tribune Newspaper, it was built in 1925. It is quite an impressive structure, built in a neo-gothic style, complete with flying buttresses near the top of the building.  One of the unique elements of the building is fragments from other historic places throughout the world, many of which were collected by the foreign newspaper correspondents who traveled throughout the world.  These rocks come from places such as the Reims Cathedral in France, where Joan of Arc was from; St Peter’s Cathedral in Rome; the Berlin Wall; the Antarctic expedition station; Suleiman’s mosque in Istanbul, Turkey; Abraham Lincoln’s home in Springfield, Illinois; and the Great Wall of China.  I remember being a child walking down Michigan Avenue with my mom pointing out all these rocks from these famous places throughout the world.  On the gallery wall of the Tribune Tower is inscribed a quote from the Catholic author Flannery O’Connor that says:  “The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”  The rocks of Tribune Tower and this Flannery O’Connor quote in our Little Blue Book of reflections for Advent and Lent.  I thought that this quote from O’Connor was so appropriate in the context of today’s Gospel about John the Baptist.  Jesus proclaimed that John was not a reed swaying in the wind, who shifted his position with the passing fashions, who just told people what they wanted to hear.  John the Baptist spoke the truth with tenacity and courage, which is why the people of Ancient Israel went out to hear the truth that was spoken without any fears or trepidations.  Even if the people were not happy with what they heard, even if the truth punched them in the stomach, it was undeniably the truth.  John the Baptist and Jesus were both put to death for speaking God’s truth and proclaiming God’s kingdom.  As we journey during this holy season of Advent, let us not be afraid to hear God’s truth as it is proclaimed to us.