3^rd Sunday of Advent (A); December 11, 2022

Is 35:1-6a,10.  Ps 146.  Js 7:5-10.  Mt 11:2-11

Deacon Jim McFadden

            Our Gospel for the 3^rd Sunday of Advent is taken from the 11^th chapter of Matthew, where we’re moving right into the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, which occurs in the middle of Matthew’s Gospel.  So, this great Advent character has been arrested and he’s heard a lot of stories about Jesus.  While John is leaning towards Jesus as the Messiah, he still has some questions. So, here’s the question he poses: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?”  (Mt 11:3).

            And, if John has this question, you can imagine how many others had the same concern.  People were obviously enthralled by Jesus as witnessed by the great crowds that flocked to him.  They were wondering aloud, “Is Jesus really the Messiah—the one promised by the prophets?  How do we tell?”

            When confronted with this question, Jesus does not respond with a theoretical, theological argument, but rather points to things that are happening.  This is really important because it cuts to the heart of Christianity.  He points to things that are happening to show who he is.

            Listen to what he says: “Go tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain 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” (vs. 4-5).

            Things are happening; things are changing.  If we may borrow from the prophet Isaiah in our first reading, ‘the desert is blooming’: “The wilderness and the parched land will exult; the Arabah will rejoice and bloom” (Is 35:1).  The desert is blooming!

            People of God, the same thing is meant to happen to us when we encounter the Risen Christ.  Sometime our souls can feel like an arid wasteland as we deal with all sorts of spiritual dysfunction: blindness, deafness, paralysis, and death.  Yet, amidst all of that, our “desert” can bloom because something dramatic is happening when Jesus is the Center of our lives!

            Let us never forget that Jesus was known as a miracle worker.  He actually performed these miracles; they’re not just metaphors.  Jesus being a miracle worker and healer were the fundamental perceptions that people had of Jesus.  It was the prime reason why people were drawn to him.  When God came among us, he began the final work of repairing his broken and wounded Creation.  That’s the basic idea of the Incarnation: Immanuel, God among us, came to save the world and to retore it to it original goodness.  That’s is why Jesus gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and restored the dead to life.  He was trying to repair a dysfunctional world to what God had originally intended.  Jesus was not just interested in saving souls, but he was concerned about bodies as well because, after all, we are enfleshed spirits. That’s the Incarnational principle.  Yes, indeed, the desert is blooming: the blind have their sight restored, the deaf now hear, and the dead are brought back to life.  Things are happening: that’s how Jesus proves who he is.

            Jesus’ miracles are intensely  grace-filled events.  And, what does grace do?  Simply put: it restores the divine life; the love of Christ is poured into our souls.  There is nothing more important in Christianity than this: it’s precisely why the Sacraments mean so much to us; it’s why as Catholics, we are a sacramental people.  Baptism puts that divine life into us as we are initiated into the Church, the Body of Christ.  Reconciliation restores it when it is lost.  The Eucharist feeds it.  Confirmation strengthens it.  Marriage and Holy Orders give it vocational direction.  That’s what the Catholic Church is all about: of putting this divine life within us.

            “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?”  Jesus says to John and 2000 years later to us: “What do you see and hear?”  We see the effects of Jesus that he has on people.  Those who were spiritually blind see.  Those who were spiritually deaf hear.  Those who were spiritually lame move.  Those who were spiritually dead come back to life.

            Who is Jesus Christ?  Look around.  Look at the effects he is having in the world.  That’s a really good Advent preparation. Amen.