3rd Sunday of Advent

In today’s Gospel it is not just John the Baptist who asks, “Are you the one who is to come or should we wait for another?” It is all of us who have asked that question of Jesus, “Are you really the One?” We ask that question because we want assurance that what we believe in is true and good, but we also ask because of weakness. Jesus, however, is very patience with us in our hardness of heart, in our weakness, and even in our sinfulness. He responds to us the same way he responded to John the Baptist, “the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, etc.” If you notice the response is not an argument on theology, philosophy, or culture, but rather it is based on the greatest of theological virtues, it is based on love.

As we journey through Advent we are invited to live like John the Baptist, to be heralds of the Good News, and to be like Jesus in our bringing the free gifts of healing to others.

Many times people will come to me and express concern that their children or some other close relation no longer attends Church and they want to know what they need to do bring them back. The people who have “left” the Church or have put Church practice on the back burner usually do so because they too have asked the question, “Are you the one who is to come or do we wait for another.” The problem was, is that the question was not sufficiently answered. One may be thinking at this point, “I am not responsible for someone else’s decision to stop practicing that is on them alone.” Someone else asked that question a long time ago as well, he said, “Lord, am I my brother’s keeper?” You bet we are.

The most important part to a person’s ontological question is their inner search and longing for the Christ. The question is answered by our actions first. Words are important, but not as much as actions. The old saying, “Actions speak louder than words” is still true and most effective.

The people who brought me the Gospel, parents, friends, confreres, helped me to see it and live it by what I saw in them, their untiring and joyous disposition of faith and charity practiced on a daily basis.

Even a person like St. Augustine who craved intellectual proofs was in the end persuaded by the actions and life of his mother, St. Monica and by St. Ambrose who so eloquently and courageously defended the faith against those who were trying to destroy it.

Before any discussion on theology can take place there has to be in us a courageous and lively faith, one that can be clearly seen and understood, in order that our lives will be the seed, the water, and the sun for the conversion of others, as St. Paul puts so beautifully wrote way back when in his 1st letter to the Corinthians, and God will provide the growth.

What is also required is patience, for many times conversion or a return to the Church takes time, God forces no one and the process is a journey. The second reading from James instructs us to be patient in all things especially with one another.

In this third week of advent we continue our wait for the Lord, we also continue to wait on others to return home and join us. Some will return on Christmas many who have not been to Church in a while; we need to show them that they belong. It will not happen by a theological treatise we give on the Eucharist, the Blessed Mother, sin, etc., but rather it will happen by what they see. If they see the lame get up and walk, the blind given their sight, the dead raised to new life, then they will return. Bring Christ to everyone in your very persons.

Fr. John