A shapely woman bathing in the river at dusk.

That’s what the young Malcolm Muggeridge came across one evening while living in India. He decided to move closer. Entering the river, he approached the woman and soon discovered she was a leper, grossly disfigured and covered with sores. Muggeridge immediately retreated.

Reflecting on his actions, Muggeridge, wisely, did not blame the woman for attracting him, rather he blamed the urges and rationalizations of his mind for tempting him to do something so unseemly as to become a Peeping Tom.

Oh how deceitful and dangerous human thought and feeling can be! 

How faulty our judgments.

How ill-directed our conclusions.

This Sunday, John the Baptist joins us for a second week in a row, this time to witness to the power of our frail human reasoning as he doubts Jesus’ very nature and identity.

Imprisoned, confused, and soon to die, we see in John how his thoughts and feelings betrayed him. 

Just as they betray us today.

Depressed fathers meet in a therapy room where a sign says, ‘You don’t have to feel like a good dad to be a good dad.’ This reminds us that every day, life asks us to trust our feelings and reasonings.

But we know we must trust, even more, Christ - in the words of scripture, the advice of saints, and witness of the Holy Spirit. This would have meant, for John, being confident that the God who called him was working through him, no matter what he thought or felt.

It says the same to you and me.

Do not grow weary in doing what is right, cling to Christ, bask in his wisdom. 

You’re making more a mark than you know.