Pavlov, Prejudice and Piety!

John 1:44-46

Now Philip was from Beth-saida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathana-el, and said to him, ‘We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’ Nathana-el said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

Long ago the Russian scientist Pavlov found that if he rang a bell each time he fed his dogs, they very soon began to associate the sound of the bell with the food.  Then, he could ring the bell without feeding them and they would still drool.  One of our glories as human persons is that we are (or should be) capable of making reasonable judgments on some higher basis than Pavlov’s dogs.  But many of us still fail to do so.  Nathana-el, the original urban sophisticate, was one of these.  At the thought of a small town like Nazareth, Nathana-el had an instant Pavlovian response: “Nazareth? (DING!) “What good could come out of Nazareth?”  Philip, on the other hand, had a much more sensible attitude: “Come and see.” Nathana-el, to his credit, took that advice and, when he saw, instantly repented his unthinking prejudice.  This Advent, let’s take some time to reassess our easy equations and thoughtless prejudices.  After all, God may have a Christmas present wrapped up for us in a very unlikely package too.

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Mark P. Shea is a popular Catholic writer and speaker. The author of numerous books, his most recent work is The Work of Mercy (Servant) and The Heart of Catholic Prayer (Our Sunday Visitor). Mark contributes numerous articles to many magazines, including his popular column “Connecting the Dots” for the National Catholic Register. Mark is known nationally for his one minute “Words of Encouragement” on Catholic radio. He also maintains the Catholic and Enjoying It blog and regularly blogs for National Catholic Register. He lives in Washington state with his wife, Janet, and their four sons.

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