I want you to close your eyes. Are they closed? (I’m serious.) Okay. Now think of the greatest saint in history. Answer the question: Why is he or she a great saint?
In the Beatitudes, Jesus utilizes a literary device called anaphora. As a reader and a writer, I love anaphora. It’s a clean, unfussy way to communicate a point.
It doesn’t matter who we are. If we are human beings with a soul, we stand on the shore of a great and powerful sea, a net in our hands and a hunger in our soul.
John the Baptist recognizes Jesus when he sees him, though there is nothing extraordinary-looking about him. This is how Jesus comes to us: veiled in the ordinary.