Fr. Roger J. Landry
Conversations with Consequences Podcast
Homily for the Third Sunday of Advent (A), Vigil
December 14, 2019
To listen to an audio recording of this short Sunday homily, please click below:
The following text guided today’s homily:
- This is Fr. Roger Landry and it’s a joy to have a chance to ponder with you the consequential conversation God wants to have with us this Sunday.
- The followers of John the Baptist came to Jesus to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come or should we look for another?” John was imprisoned and his friends were likely wondering if Jesus were the long-awaited Messiah why he was waiting so long to do something. So John sent them to ask the question of Jesus directly. Jesus’ response was to show how he was fulfilling everything the Prophet Isaiah said the Messiah would do when at last he arrived: he has made the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the lepers have the skin of newborns, the dead live again and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. He was doing everything Isaiah foretold. In fact, he was fulfilling everything all the prophets had foretold. But he was not meeting the expectations of those who thought that the Messiah would have a political mission, kicking out the Romans and their stooges like Herod, setting John free, and instituting an earthly kingdom. That’s why Jesus finished by saying, “Blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.” Some of them clearly were taking offense that Jesus was not behaving according to their political expectations. There are some people in every age, however, who don’t like the way the God-man chooses to reign. Not only does evil remain, but those who do evil often seem to get rich, hold political office, even commit atrocities against children, the defensely, or even those who are faithful to Jesus, like John the Baptist. It’s important for us to ponder Jesus’ words, “Blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.” Jesus would ultimately be crucified himself — the greatest scandal of all to worldly ideas of a Messiah — but he rose from the dead on the third day, and he can and does similarly draw good out of evil, and, rather than take scandal, we need to grow in trust.
- Jesus went on in this conversation to say some extraordinary things about John the Baptist. He praises him, calling him the greatest man born of woman. He says he is more than a prophet, but the one about whom it was written, “I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare the way before you.” He not only foretold the Messiah’s coming but pointed him out when at last he came and helped people prepare the way to follow him. John continues that work of preparation every second and third Sundays of Advent. He sends us to Jesus so that we might find out personally how Jesus is and follow him.
- But then Jesus says something about us in the Gospel. As great as John the Baptist was, Jesus says “the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” John could announce the Lord’s coming. He could point him out. But the least in the kingdom of heaven, into which we enter by Jesus’ baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire, is able to literally to receive the Lamb of God within — receive his very life, his words, his being — and live and reign in communion with him.
- So if John is more than a prophet, and the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he, we must really ponder our vocation and mission, who are called to be even greater than John. We’re called to do more than to point out Christ when he comes, but, together with Christ dwelling within, take him to others, so that he can held their spiritual or even physical handicaps and in their poverty received the riches of his good news.
- In response to the many people today who take offense at Jesus, who question and doubt him, who think he was foolish to found the Church the way that he did, with certain teachings they don’t like, with a structure that they claim is outdated or discriminatory, we’re called to bring him to them. Our work is in some ways tougher than John the Baptist’s. The people of his day were longing for a Messiah. Many in our day already think they already know who Jesus is and don’t find him and the Christian message compelling enough to seek to live it to the full. While it is perhaps harder from the human point of view to change people’s minds than form them in the first place, we have something immense going for us that John didn’t have: we have the full revelation of God’s word, the miracle of his resurrection, the grace that comes from the sacraments, and the holiness that exists in certain places in the Church on our side.
- With regard to our family members and friends who have stopped practicing the faith, the Lord isn’t going to send them angels like he sent to the shepherds on Christmas morning to announce to them anew the good news. He doesn’t have to because he has us. But like Jesus said about John, the people of our age do not want to see us as reeds swayed by the wind who don’t stand for anything. They don’t want to see us as people whose faith is lived simply on Sunday by dressing in our Sunday best. They want to see the difference Jesus makes in our life. As we mark Gaudete Sunday, on which we focus on the joy that comes from Christ’s coming, his presence, his mercy, his help and his calling, the Lord wants to help us radiate the joy that comes to our faith and give a witness that Christ is real. As we’ll sing on Christmas day, they want to see in us a glimpse of the Joy to the World that we profess he continually brings. In a world that suffers with so much depression and brokenness, where there is so much political strife wearing people out, where many suffer injustice and persecution, Jesus sends us out as prophets, as more than prophets, as greater than John the Baptists, to help people get ready for Jesus, embrace him, live with him, and joyfully bring others to experience the difference he makes. Jesus said that he had come into the world so that his joy might be ours and our joy may be complete. On Gaudete Sunday, Jesus wants to give us a taste of that joy and help us through our communion with him in the Eucharist to bring that joy to the world, one person at a time.
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