SCRIPTURE REFLECTION, Thursday, December 11, 2025: Matthew 11:11-15 II RP Fiorentius Sipayung, OF...

Daily Reflection for Thursday, December 11, 2025 Isaiah 41:13-20; Matthew 11:11-15 Dear brothers and sisters, today in the Eucharistic Celebration we hear the first reading from the Book of Isaiah and the Gospel from Matthew. The first reading from Isaiah affirms that the Lord is our God. Therefore, do not be afraid. The Lord helps us and redeems us. The passage says: "I am the Lord your God. I take hold of your right hand and speak to you. I am your helper and your redeemer. The Lord is the Holy One of Israel. The Lord will strengthen his people, listen to the poor, and bring about many astonishing changes: I will make rivers gush out on the barren hills, and springs of water gush out in the midst of the plains. I will make the desert into pools, and water springs out of the parched ground. These things are impossible in human terms, but they are possible with God." Furthermore, the Gospel of Matthew mentions that John the Baptist was a great man. No one was greater than him. However, it says that the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John the Baptist. The prophets and the Torah prophesied about John's coming. Therefore, John needed to be accepted and listened to. Who was John the Baptist? He was the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth. He called for repentance because the kingdom of God was near, and invited people to be baptized in The Jordan River. He was a man who dared to speak the truth. He refused to compromise against what was untrue. He was known for his sharp tongue. The prophecy of the prophet Isaiah, "I will make you a sharp, new threshing sledge with two rows of teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them; you will make the hills like chaff," seemed to be fulfilled in John the Baptist. He indeed died for speaking the truth. Dear brothers and sisters, the figure of John the Baptist is a key point in today's word of God. He called for repentance and had the courage to speak the truth. This was because God was working in him. Thus, he became a free person, not bound by fear of losing his life or being hated by others. May we emulate John the Baptist's passion in calling for repentance and truth. We must begin with ourselves. The challenges and difficulties that are strong enough to do this are our own fears: fear of losing our lives, fear of being shunned by others, fear of criticism, fear of hurting others, and so on. Fears like these often cause us to lose our identity. We certainly don't want such a thing to happen in our lives. Therefore, we need to reexamine our closeness to God. These days, what we call indifference and permissiveness are quite common. And this is dangerous for our communal life. Indifference makes us indifferent to what is happening around us. Permissiveness makes us blindly accept things without consideration, for fear of hurting others' feelings. The effect is not goodness or collective progress, but rather, it plunges others into a deeper abyss. Dear brothers and sisters, let us emulate the life of John the Baptist by strengthening our courage and independence so that we are always ready to speak out for repentance and truth. God bless. Pace e bene. Fr. Fioren Sipayung, OFMCap December 11, 2025