3^rd Sunday of Advent (A); December 14, 2025

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 in to 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 long-awaited Messiah, he still has some questions whether he is the One.  Since John has a blunt, in-your-face approach to ministry—repentance was his rallying cry—he may have thought the Messiah would come and do justice by chastising sinners.  That’s what he did and he probably projected his style onto the Messiah.  In contrast to John, Jesus had words and gestures of compassion towards all.  At the center of his public ministry was mercy and forgiveness, whereby “the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up., and the poor have good news preached to them” (Mt 11:6). 

         Lest we forget, John is in prison, which was not only a place of dark physical isolation, but it makes us think of an interior dark situation in which we don’t see clearly and wonder what’s going to happen in the future.  In effect, John is no longer able to recognize Jesus as the awaited Messiah.  The poor guy is assailed by doubt and even though he had baptized Jesus, he sends his disciples to check out the itinerant preacher from Nazareth. Even though John at the Jordan River had indicated to his disciples that Jesus is the Lamb of God (cf. Jn 1:29), he is going through a “dark night of the soul.”  This means that even the greatest believer can go through a tunnel of doubt and this is not one necessarily a bad thing because it shows that we’re still engaged.  It helps us to understand that God is greater than we could ever imagine him to be.  His works go way beyond our puny calculations.  As St. Augustine once said,  “If you think you understand God, that’s not God!”  Since God always exceeds our needs and expectations, we must never let go of the desire to seek him and move towards his true face not that of our projection.

A great pre-Vatican II theologian Henri De Lubac used to say that “God needs to be rediscovered in stages…sometimes believing we are losing him” (Sur les chemins de Dieu).  This is what John the Baptist is going through: in doubt, he seeks Jesus, questions him, argues with him, and finally rediscovers him.  John, who Jesus described as the greatest among women (cf. Mt 11:11) teaches us, in short, not to put God in a box according to our mindsets.  There is always a temptation that rather we revolve around God, we expect God to revolve around us!  So, we try to make God according to our needs and expectations, a God we can use for our purposes.  And, circling back to Augustine: God is not like that; God is something else: way beyond what we can conceive or imagine. 

         Just as John was going through this dark night in his jail cell, so we can fall into an inner jail, unable to recognize the newness of the Lord as he comes into our life.  Perhaps we hold Jesus into our presumptions that we already know everything about him.  People of God, we never know everything about God.  That full revelation will only occur in Paradise when we stand before the Beatific Vision.  Perhaps we have a notion of a warrior God who takes no prisoners instead of a God who is one of humble meekness, the God of mercy and love who pours his whole being into our hearts and soul: “Everything I have is yours” he told the recalcitrant elder son in the Prodigal Son parable.  Something similar can happen to us as we relate to God according to our expectations, prejudices, fears, and anxieties.  As a word of caution, if we relate to others, especially the most vulnerable in our society with prejudice and rigidity, especially chose who are different than we are, we’ll probably relate to God in the same way.

         Advent is a time for overturning our perspectives, for allowing ourselves to be surprised by the greatness of God’s mercy.  Catholics should be people who are astonished because God always astonishes!

         May our Lady take us by the hand, like a mother; may she take us by the hand during these days of preparation for Christmas, and help us to recognize the greatness of God who astonishes us in his coming in the smallness of the Infant. Amen.

Reflection Questions:

1. Have you ever entered an interior dark situation in which you don’t see clearly.  Do you undergo that Dark Night with God? 
2. How do you respond to St. Augustine’s quote, “If you think you understand God, that’s not God!”
3. Does God astonish you?  How so?