Early one June afternoon, his Jesuit Professor was trying to teach the class English Composition. They were in fourth year high school. It was a very warm day, and there was no air conditioning at that time, so the windows of the classroom were wide open. In the middle of the lesson, a donkey put his head through the open window, looked at the class, and brayed.
The class burst into laughter. The Jesuit teacher was mildly disturbed by this, and said: "All right, class! If it is so funny, I want you to write a composition on what just happened – a donkey, putting his head through the window. Write it now!" The boys – it was an all-boys school – took out paper and pen, and began to write.
Will Durant, seventeen years old, thought for a moment, then wrote for ten seconds. He put down his pen, opened a book, and began to read. The Jesuit came to him and said: "I told you to write a composition!" Will looked up, and said: "I wrote it!" The Jesuit looked at his paper. Durant had written:
"He came unto his own… but his own received him not."
The Jesuit professor said: "Will, you are going to be a leader. For better or for worse, you will be a leader." He was. Some of his thoughts were brilliant and good. And some of his thoughts were brilliant and bad. But at least he made people think. I would guess that God used his good thoughts like wheat, and tolerated his bad thoughts, like the cockle in the field.
In that high school composition he was quoting Saint John the Evangelist, who said: "He was in the world, but the world knew him not. He came unto his own, but his own received him not." Will Durant quoted those words, from memory!
During these days of Advent, we hear those words again and again. Only last Sunday all the Catholic priests in the Philippines, read, from the pulpit, the words of John the Baptist: "Among you stands one whom you do not recognize… I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal."
The Catholic Sisters, in all of our Catholic grade schools, are saying to the children: "Prepare for the coming of God!… Prepare your hearts for the birth of God in the stable of Bethlehem!… Make straight his path, and smooth his way!" This is perfectly all right, of course, because God does come to us, in a special way, at Christmas time.
But when God inspired John the Evangelist to write those words, it was not meant only for the men and women of his time, two thousand years ago. When God inspired John the Baptist to say this to the laborers and housewives and prostitutes and publicans gathered before him on the banks of the Jordan River, it was not meant only for them!
God was speaking to us! He was saying: "God is with you, now! But you do not recognize him! He is living these, with you, but you do not know him!"
We think of the Scribes and Pharisees as stupid, because God was standing there before their eyes, and they did not see him. God was speaking to them, and they did not hear him. Seeing, they did not see. Hearing, they did not hear.
But we are exactly like the Scribes and Pharisees! God is there, before our eyes, and we do not see him. God is speaking to us, and we do not hear him. Seeing, we do not see. Hearing, we do not hear.
• Where is God, in your life?
… In your wife!
• Where is God, in your life?
… In your husband!!
• Where is God, in your home?
… In your children!
• Where is God, in the place where you work?
… In your friend!
• God is in the atchay, the chimay, in your kitchen, trying to cook your breakfast for you.
• God is in the little boy with the dirty face, and even dirtier hands, tapping on the window of your car, when you stop for the red light on the street corner.
• God is in your enemy, against whom you are plotting and planning.