It’s not only fictional characters that capture our imagination, but figures from real life stories as well. I’ve always been fascinated by the figure of John the Baptist, whom we hear about again in today’s Gospel. John grew up in obscurity, wearing strange clothes and eating strange foods, but for a time, he captured the imaginations of the people of his day. Living a life of austerity and poverty, he preached a message of repentance and prophesied a coming reality of justice, peace, and renewal. As we heard last week, people from all over the region went out to hear him preach and to be baptized by him. Jesus himself notes that the people recognized something in John’s prophecy unlike anything they had ever heard before – and that is why they journeyed into the harsh desert to hear him.
But fortunes dim and popular voices sometimes lose their popularity. Today’s Gospel finds John in a much different place. Having pointed out to his followers Jesus as the Lamb of God, John now is imprisoned by Herod, awaiting his own death. This prophet, who grew up in obscurity in the desert, was for a time a voice crying in the wilderness, drawing thousands to hear his message, before he retreated again into obscurity.
Giovanni di Paolo, Saint John the Baptist in Prison Visited by Two Disciples (c. 1460)
However, today’s reading from the Gospel of Matthew provides us with one last word from John. He sends some of his followers – that is, some of those who did not convert to following Jesus – to ask Jesus a question: “Are you the one who is to come or should we look for another?” John knows that Jesus is the true Messiah, but he also knows that he is not acting in the way that many had expected the Messiah to be. Rather than deliver swift justice, Jesus is undertaking a ministry of mercy.
Notice how Jesus responds to the question of John’s disciples. Rather than give a defense of himself, he points their attention to what is happening around them: that the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are healed, the dead are raised. In other words, it is the ministry of Jesus itself – the miraculous works that he is doing – which serves as proof for who he is. Not only he is healing individual people – in a sense he is restoring creation, refashioning the brokenness of the world to its original harmony. He is, in a real way, fulfilling the words of Isaiah we heard in the first reading: "Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes with vindication; he comes to save you." Now we can see why John sent his followers to ask this unusual question. He wants them to hear the answer that Jesus gives – he wants them to understand for themselves what he himself already knew: that Jesus is the Lamb of God, come to take away sins and restore friendship between God and humanity. Even from his prison cell, John was directing people to Jesus till the last.
On this Third Sunday of Advent, in the midst of our season of preparation and anticipation, the Church bids us to look with joy to who Jesus is and what he has come to do. He is certainly the Messiah whom John foretold and who will one day judge all creation. But he is also the Savior, who through the power of his mercy restores what is lost and lifts up those who are low. This work of Jesus is not something consigned to history, as if his ministry ended with his earthly life. No, in a real way, the Church as the Body of Christ continues that same work, offering forgiveness to sinners, counsel to the troubled, strength to the weak.
This week, we have a wonderful chance for this ministry of the Church to become real for us in our penance service on Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. If it’s been a while since you experienced the healing effect of the Lord’s love for you, I invite you to come and be refreshed in the sacrament of reconciliation. When we confess our sins truthfully and humbly, and receive the mercy of Jesus, our souls become as Isaiah described in today’s first reading: like flowers after desert rains, blossoming with new life. Don’t let any fears or discouragement you may feel keep you from receiving the loving assurance of his presence that God wants you to have.
Having been healed by the Lord, we also remember that we bring his healing also to others. Not just priests and deacons but every baptized Christian has a share in the work of the Church, in the renewal that Isaiah preached and which the disciples saw occur. That work need not always be as dramatic as the miracles that Jesus performed. Indeed, as the Epistle of James says to us today, often it is done in much more subtle ways – bearing hardship patiently, dealing with others tolerantly and without complaining, refusing to judge others lest we judge ourselves. Such seemingly small things have no less of an important role in refashioning creation and continuing God’s work of restoring what is lost.
"Flowers," photo by Jean Beaufort (Creative Commons licensed for Public Domain)
Friends, God’s salvation is not something left merely to the imagination, like a fictional story set in a galaxy far away. No, it is something real, and close at hand – it is the love of Jesus made known to us and to all. As we journey closer to the celebration of our Savior’s birth, may we not be tempted to “look for another,” one who conforms more to our expectations, but instead to see anew the mercy we receive in Christ and share that mercy with others. We don’t have to work miracles to be a part of God’s salvation; we need only be like John the Baptist, pointing the way to Christ. May the Lord prepare our hearts in these holy days to patiently, faithfully advance the work that Jesus started long ago and which we as the Church continue in and through him.
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