Third Sunday of Advent
I’ve
been mentioning at each set of Masses that I have in this new liturgical year
that I want to shift my focus a little bit in the homilies I preach. Last year I tried to focus on the gift
of faith and spreading the Gospel.
That certainly will still come up in my homilies, as it is a perennial
aspect of our faith. But this year
I want to focus more on the prayers of the Mass and help us understand how they
connect to our readings, our faith, and especially the Christian life beyond
these walls.
In
our Advent preface, the prayer that precedes the Holy, Holy, Holy, and which has
been prayed for these past two weeks, we ask God that, “we who watch for that
day may inherit the great promise in which now we dare to hope.” As Christians, we are meant to be ready,
watching and waiting for Jesus to return.
We should live our lives in such a way that should Jesus come back at
the end of this Mass, we would be ready to welcome Him, and not afraid of what
our judgment would be. We
shouldn’t need a few days to clean up our act and prepare for judgment, but
should be ever ready for Christ to judge us. But we can struggle with this. After 1,980 years of waiting, perhaps we second-guess
ourselves about Jesus really coming back.
Maybe we don’t live life always ready for Jesus to return. Maybe our faith starts to falter, and
we question a life as a faithful disciple, ever obedient to the commands of the
Lord.
We’re
not alone. St. John the Baptist
did the same thing as he was sitting in prison. He had pointed out the Lamb of God, and prepared people by
repentance to follow Jesus. He had
even seen the Spirit descend upon Jesus in the Jordan, and had heard the voice
of the Father say, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And now there he was, sitting in
prison, and nothing seemed different.
“Maybe it was a mistake,” he thought, “maybe I got the wrong guy.” And so he sends messengers to ask Jesus
if He truly is the Messiah. The
Kingdom hadn’t been ushered in the way John wanted, and so he doubted.
The
early Christians also questioned.
Many of them expected Jesus to come back within their lifetime. They would pray each Sunday, “Maranatha! Come, Lord!”
And yet, after all those years of praying, He still had not
returned. That is why St. James
tells them in the second reading, “Be patient, brothers and sisters, until the
coming of the Lord…Make your hearts firm…Take as an example of hardship and
patience…the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.” In the midst of suffering (and there
were plenty then), St. James encourages them to stay the course and not back
out because Jesus has not returned on their timetable.
Maybe
we’re not as concerned with Jesus’ second coming as the first century
Christians; maybe we don’t expect the Messianic reign in the same way that St.
John the Baptist did. But it’s
easy to question our faith when our lives are not going the way we want them
to, and we feel like Jesus is not living up to His promises. Maybe our prayer is dry, and it feels
like just going through the motions.
Maybe there is great suffering in our life due to illness, a broken
relationship with a friend or family member, or maybe we are doubting that we
will really be rewarded for being a follower of Jesus.
Jesus
responds to John that the signs of the Kingdom are different than what was
expected: “‘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.’” That may not have been
what was hoped for, but Jesus is instituting His Kingdom in His way. Jesus responds to us, too, “‘blessed is
the one who takes no offense at me.’”
In other words, blessed are those who allow me to work in the lives in
the way Jesus wants, not necessarily the way we want. Maybe the dryness in prayer is actually a vehicle to desire
God all the more. Maybe the
illness is a reminder that life is short, and a call to repentance and to join
in the sufferings of Christ to alleviate past sins. Maybe a broken relationship is an opportunity for us to
acknowledge how our personality and temperament can sometimes drive people
away. Maybe the doubt is an
opportunity to go deeper in trust of Jesus.
It
can be difficult when we’re waiting to keep up the same intensity throughout a
long period of time. It can be
difficult when Jesus does not work on the timetable that we want. But each Advent we are reminded that
Jesus will return again, and that we need to make sure that we are ready to
welcome Him back. I hope we never
grow tired of saying with our hearts and voices, “Maranatha! Come,
Lord!”
