Doubt, in the Filipino culture, is understood as the lack of confidence in a person, in a thing or even in an activity or in one’s abilities. It is synonymous to fear and uncertainty over a person or event and our plans. We all have doubts, and this is a very normal attitude especially in our present society that is slowly being filled up with lies and misinformation about the objective truth of things and age-old principles. The sad fact is that we doubt everything even if there are things that we do not really need to look for proofs and evidence.
The doubt of John can be considered as a big blow to Jesus whom, earlier he announced to come as a person whose sandal strap, he is not worthy to untie. Now that the Lord has come, he told his disciples to ask Jesus: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?”
Doubt, I believe, is natural especially for people who used to get entangled with the lies, deceit, misinformation, and fake news. But the doubt of John is just to make sure that there can be no other savior than Jesus whom he announced. He just wanted to make sure that, the man whom he heard of from behind bars, was indeed the person whom he announced before he came into trouble with Herod. Of course, we know the story behind, and we know the background why Herod imprisoned John the Baptist.
Jesus said to them in reply, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regains their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.” This reply is the best that he can give to the people who were doubting his words and actions because his actions were enough for the people around him to believe that he was the Messiah.
My dear friends, we have a lot of doubts in our lives, and we have the tendency to have doubts about almost everything around us. We cannot blame ourselves for all these doubts but only the circumstances. It is easy and even acceptable to doubt against someone or something that has added more stress to our already stressful situation. It is easy to doubt about an oncoming plan without seeing a brighter future or better results ahead. As I have said, doubt is normal even if doubt is something that is contrary to having faith.
How can we really doubt when there are positive results? How can we really doubt about a love when we are getting all the good things and benefits of that love? How can we really doubt about the concern of someone who is out there to discipline a lousy teenager just because he spoke of some harsh truths in front of his face? Doubts are a misplaced idea in a world where true and honest people exist. For me, doubt is but a language or an attitude of fickle-minded persons. People with a lot of faith never doubt and they only believe.
“The blind regains their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.” This mission of Jesus is on-going, and we are expected to continue this mission even in those trivial things that we can do for our brothers and sisters. We are not expected to do spectacle things like Jesus did, but we can do our part in helping people see that the horizon that lies ahead is full of good options that they can take to improve their lives. We can help other people to continue walking down the by-ways of life and get past all the obstacles and reach the finish line. We can help other people to wash their sins away and hold fast to the love and grace of God. We can help them find ways to be alive in doing the works of God in their simple ways. We can announce the good news to everyone simply by sharing the love that Christ gave us. No doubt we can conquer the entire world because of the love of God. Our task is only to share that love to others.
I am a believer and I never doubt! My life may be considered as on the cutting edge of success or failure, but I believe that God loves me so I will continue doing all I can just to “make the blind regain their sight, make the lame walk again, clean the lepers, raise the dead, and proclaim the good news to the poor!” I am just a lowly servant of my Lord, my God.