December 11th 2022. Third Sunday of Advent

GOSPEL: Matthew 11:2-11

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

 

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

 

GOSPEL: Matthew 11:2-11

When John the Baptist heard in prison of the works of the Christ, 
he sent his disciples to Jesus with this question, 
“Are you the one who is to come,
or should we look for another?”
Jesus said to them in reply, 
“Go and 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.
And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.”
As they were going off,
Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John, 
“What did you go out to the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind?
Then what did you go out to see? Someone dressed in fine clothing?
Those who wear fine clothing are in royal palaces.
Then why did you go out? To see a prophet?
Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.
This is the one about whom it is written:
Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you;
he will prepare your way before you.
Amen, I say to you, among those born of women 
there has been none greater than John the Baptist; 
yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

 

Christ saves us in ways we do not expect. Even John the Baptist was surprised at the kind of salvation Christ brought. It did not consist in castigating everyone so that they would behave better. Rather, Christ saves by entering into our weakness and transforming it.

This third Sunday of Advent is called “Gaudete Sunday”, the Sunday of Joy. Advent in fact is oriented to the coming joy. We hear in the Gospel that John has doubts. He expected a Messiah who would castigate people and put things in order. Jesus replies with a list of his works (which are not the works the Baptist expected) and says, “Blessed is he who takes no offence at me”. The fact is that salvation is always different to what we expect. The last line of the passage is very revealing. Jesus tells us that John is the greatest man ever born, but that the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is still greater. John stands at the frontier between the Old and the New Testaments. He is the greatest of the prophets, but yet we are called to live something that greater than that which the entire Old Testament bore within itself. The Gospel of Matthew was written for a Jewish-Christian audience. They too risked being scandalised by the fact that Jesus represents a completely unexpected sort of fulfilment of the promises of the Old Testament. The observance of the Law, the entire story of the old covenant was being radically challenged.

 

Each one of us has a greater dignity than all the prophets and great leaders who came before Christ. We are greater in the sense that Christ touches us, saves us and raises us up.

The signs of the new order were, according to Jesus, the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, the lame walking, lepers being cleansed. In this new order, each one of us through the grace of Christ bears the divine nature, in this sense making us greater than John the Baptist himself – this is what is difficult to accept. These Christians of the first century who heard the Gospel of Matthew were asked to consider themselves greater than any of the prophets. Each Christian is greater than Isaiah, Jeremiah, Moses or Abraham because he bears within himself the salvation that these men longed for. We are invited to consider the greatness of our own dignity. How blessed we are to hear what others longed to hear and see that which generations before the advent of Christ longed to see! We have the sacraments, the announcement of the mercy of God, which is greater than the old Law. When we accept Christ as our Messiah, mercy and truth encounter each other, and in our flesh we become an announcement of the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven.

 

We are all crippled, blind and deaf on an existential level. Christ enters and touches our condition, transforming it, operating salvation through us so that we become signs of his Kingdom.

It doesn’t matter if we are blind, lame, or deaf, God accepts us as we are and operates in us. This is the greatness the Church has. How many saints during history have come from situations of poverty and sin but have yet been borne to the greatness of the Kingdom! Each one of us is crippled on an existential level, each one of us suffers from interior blindness and deafness. Like lepers, we are isolated from others in our own self-insulation. This is where the Messiah enters our lives! He comes for the sick, not the healthy. He doesn’t come for the perfect, like John the Baptist, greatest born of woman, but Christ comes for the poorest of the poor. That is why the smallest in the Kingdom is greater than John the Baptist – he has the dignity of being saved by Christ! Let us allow God to save us! Let us stop pretending to be perfect. No matter how perfect we may appear in ourselves, it is nothing to what we are when the Lord is operating through us.

 

ALTERNATIVE HOMILY

On this “Gaudete” Sunday, what reason do we have to be joyful? The passage from the Gospel answers this question in a clear manner. John the Baptist sends his disciples to Jesus to ask if he really is the Messiah or not. John was living a frugal life of prayer and penance. His message to the people was that they must change their behaviour and live righteously. Perhaps John was disconcerted to find that Jesus was doing things in a different way? Maybe he had begun to wonder if Jesus was really the Christ after all? Jesus responds to the question in a surprising way: he tells John’s disciples to go and tell him what they have witnessed – that the blind see, the deaf hear, lepers are cleansed and the dead are raised to life. John was telling people to change their behaviour but Jesus was transforming people from the inside. This is the reason that we rejoice on Sunday. The Good News is not about a Saviour who lines us all up and demands obedience under threat of punishment. Jesus saves us in a completely different way. He draws us to him by his integrity and by his fidelity to the Father. He does not demand rote actions from us but he relates to us personally and heals us within. I am the blind man who cannot see the glory of God, cannot hear what the Lord has to say to me. I am the lame man who does not move beyond myself. I am the leper who lives in isolation from others, the dead man who cannot be raised by human means. Jesus acts on me from within and heals my vision, my ability to listen. He cleanses me of my impurity and brings me into communion with others. He raises the dead man within me. The key is that I must be the poor man who knows how to rejoice in the Good News. While I remain with the attitude of the rich, I will be so full of myself that I cannot accept this message.