There is always an element of surprise in the meetings between Jesus and new disciples. Usually they are surprised by Jesus, but sometimes it is Jesus who is surprised. Jesus is amazed at the centurion’s faith, but He is also amazed at the fact that only one of 10 lepers, a Samaritan, should come back to thank Him. Perhaps this is why Jesus didn’t come in an age of mass media. We don’t meet the Christ as these people did, but we can pray, and we can be amazed by His presence in our life. We understand that He is present in our own meetings with other people, particularly people we might not trust, people such as the Romans and Samaritans this day. If we meet anyone in faith then Christ is there, and the meetings of Christ with John the Baptist and so many other figures in the New Testament are models for our own encounters with other people. John the Baptist at this moment thinks he knows what is his encounter with the Messiah will be like. He is wrong, as the Christ asks to be baptized, showing humility rather than power. Yet there is i-one piece of wisdom that John has, even before he meets Jesus. He knows what he is not. Only Jesus says, “ I am”, in the Gospel of St. John.
In prayer, we can begin to find out who we truly are. Who are we in the eyes of God and of humanity? To discover the answer to this question we need to be in God’s presence. It is from God that we come, it is to God that we return. The answer to a question, “Who I am?” must always include God. We are God’s children, the redeemed God. John the Baptist, therefore, can only answer in the negative to those who ask him who he is. He is still waiting for the Lord to truly come into this world. Prayer, as the 2nd reading tells us, is to make us ready to meet Jesus. Even John the Baptist, despite his lifetime of prayer, was not yet ready to meet the real Christ. We have neglected Him, we have not prayed constantly, we have not given thanks to God, yet Christ is among us; and at the end of our lives, and at the end of human history, we will meet Him. The more we pray, the more we live a life of thanksgiving, the more joyful that meeting will be.