Readings:
Isaiah 35:1-6,10
Psalm 146:6-10 James 5:7-10
Matthew 11:2-11(see also ‘More Than a Prophet’)
Chants
Scott Hahn with David Scott
He knows that Jesus is doing “the works of the Messiah,” foretold in today’s First Reading and Psalm. But John wants his disciples—and us—to know that the Judge is at the gate, that in Jesus our God has come to save us.
The Liturgy of Advent takes us out into the desert to see and hear the marvelous works and words of God—the lame leaping like a stag, the dead raised, the good news preached to the poor (see Isaiah 29:18-20; 61:1-2).
The Liturgy does this to give us courage, to strengthen our feeble hands and make firm our weak knees. Our hearts can easily become frightened and weighed down by the hardships we face. We can lose patience in our sufferings as we await the coming of the Lord.
As James advises in today’s Epistle, we should take as our example the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
Jesus also points us to a prophet—holding up John as a model. John knew that life was more than food, the body more than clothing. He sought the kingdom of God first, confident that God would provide (see Matthew 6:25-34). John did not complain. He did not lose faith. Even in chains in his prison cell, he was still sending his disciples—and us—to our Savior.
We come to Him again now in the Eucharist. Already He has caused the desert to bloom, the burning sands to become springs of living water. He has opened our ears to hear the words of the sacred book, freed our tongue to fill the air with songs of thanksgiving (see Isaiah 30:18).
Once bowed down, captives to sin and death, we have been ransomed and returned to His Kingdom, crowned with everlasting joy. Raised up we now stand before His altar to meet the One who is to come: “Here is your God.”
‘More Than A Prophet’
The Advent Liturgy focuses us on John the Baptist—as the herald of our Lord who made Him known when at last He came (Preface for Advent II).
But as Jesus tells us in the Liturgy for the Third Sunday in Advent, John is “more than a prophet” (see Matthew 11:9).
John the Baptist, he hints, is Elijah—the “messenger” sent ahead to prepare the Messiah’s way (see Matthew 11:10).
Elijah had been swept up to heaven in a fiery chariot (see 2 Kings 2:11). But the prophets said he would return before the Day of the Lord, to “turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers” (see Malachi 3:23-4; Sirach 48:4,10).
And John comes preaching in the desert, clad in the same strange garb as Elijah (compare Matthew 3:4 and 2 Kings 1:8; Zechariah 13:4).
Later in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that John indeed was Elijah come to restore all things.
And Jesus predicts that He, like John, will not be recognized and will suffer the prophet’s fate: “I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased. so will the Son of Man suffer at their hands” (see Matthew 17:10-13).
St. Gregory the Great from Gospel Homilies, 6
Why, after he had been imprisoned, did John the Baptist send his disciples to ask: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect another?” as though he did not know the very one to whom he had pointed?… This question is quickly answered if we examine the time and order in which events took place.
On the banks of the Jordan John affirmed that Jesus was the Redeemer of the world (Jn 1,29); even so, after his imprisonment, he asked whether he was really the one who was to come.
It was not that he doubted Jesus to be the Redeemer of the world, but he wanted to know whether he who had come in person into the world would also descend in person to the prison-house of the dwelling-place of the dead. Because he whom John had already announced to the world in his role as forerunner, he would also precede into the underworld by his death…
It is as though he wanted to say clearly: “Just as you have deigned to be born for man’s sake, grant us to know whether you will also deign to die for him in such a way that, forerunner as I am of your birth so shall I also be of your death, and so that I may proclaim your coming to the dwelling places of the dead just as I have proclaimed your coming into the world.”
This is the reason why the Lord’s answer, immediately after recounting the miracles wrought by his power, refers to his going down to death: “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 offence at me!”
Having witnessed so many signs and such great wonders no one has any reason to stumble but, rather, much to admire. Nevertheless, serious cause of scandal arose in the spirits of those who did not believe when they saw him die, even after so many miracles.
Hence Paul’s words: “We proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,” (1Cor1,23)…
So when the Lord says: “Blessed is the one who takes no offence at me” does he not clearly refer to the humiliation and lowliness of his death?
It is as though he had said openly: “Yes, it is true that I do wonderful things but I don’t refuse to suffer what is humiliating on that account. Since I am going to follow John the Baptist by dying, let people who venerate in me my miracles take care not to despise me in my death.”
A Sermon Attributed to St. Hippolytus of RomeSermon on the Holy Theophany (PG 10, 852; Migne 2000, p. 136 rev)
Let us honor the compassion of a God who has come to save, not to judge, the world. John, the Lord’s forerunner, who had previously been unaware of this mystery, as soon as he learned that Jesus was truly the Lord, cried out to those who came to be baptised: “Brood of vipers (Mt 3,6), why look to me so insistently?
I am not the Christ; I am a servant, not the Master, a mere subject, not the king. I am a sheep, not the shepherd, a man not a God. When I came into the world I cured my mother’s barrenness but her virginity was not made fruitful by me. I was drawn from below, I did not come down from on high. I bound my father’s tongue (Lk 1,20), I did not exercise divine grace… I am lowly and small but after me comes he who was before me (Jn 1,30). He comes afterwards in time but beforehand he was in the inaccessible and inexpressible light of the divinity. ‘He who is stronger than I is coming and I am not worthy to take off his sandals: he will baptise you in Spirit and fire’ (Mt 3,11).
I am beneath him but he is free. I am subject to sin but he destroys sin. I am a teacher of the Law but he brings with him the light of grace. I preach as a slave but he legislates as a master. The earth is my bed, the heavens are his. I baptise with the baptism of repentance but he give us the grace of adoption. ‘He will baptise you in Spirit and in fire.’ Why do you honor me? I am not the Christ.”
Pope Benedict XVI
Angelus Address, December 12, 2010
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
On this Third Sunday of Advent, the Liturgy presents to us a passage from the Letter of St James, which opens with this exhortation: “Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord” (Jas 5:7). It seems to me especially important, in our day, to underline the value of constancy and persistence, virtues which belonged to the normal baggage of our ancestors but today are less popular, in a world which exalts, rather, the change and capacity to adapt oneself to ever new and diverse situations.
Taking nothing from these features, which are also human qualities, Advent calls us to develop inner tenacity, resistance of the spirit, which enables us not to despair while waiting for a good that is slow in coming, but on the contrary to prepare for its coming with active trust.
“Behold,” James writes, “the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it until it receives the early and the late rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand” (Jas 5:7-8).
The comparison drawn with the farmer is very expressive, he has sown the field and has before him several months of patient and constant waiting, but he knows that in the meantime the seed completes its cycle, thanks to the autumn and spring rains. The farmer is not a fatalist but the model of a mentality which unites faith and reason in a balanced way. For on the one hand he knows the laws of nature and does his work well, and on the other, he trusts in Providence, because certain fundamental things are not in his hands but in the hands of God. Patience and constancy are truly a synthesis between human commitment and confidence in God.
“Establish your hearts”, Scripture says. How can we do this? How can we strengthen our hearts, already somewhat frail in themselves and rendered even more unstable by the culture in which we are immersed. Help is not lacking; it is the Word of God. In fact, while everything else passes and changes, the Word of the Lord is not transient. If the events of life make us feel bewildered and every certainty seems to crumble, we have a compass to guide us, we have an anchor to prevent us from drifting away.
Here the model offered to us is that of the prophets, namely those people whom God called so that they might speak in his name. The prophet finds his joy and strength in the word of God and while humans often search for happiness in ways that prove erroneous, he announces true hope, which does not disappoint because it is founded on the fidelity of God.
Every Christian, by virtue of Baptism, has received prophetic dignity. May each one rediscover and nourish it, by listening assiduously to the divine Word. May the Virgin Mary, whom the Gospel calls blessed because she believed in the fulfilment of the words of the Lord, obtain this for us (Lk 1:45).
After the Angelus :
Dear friends,
My first greeting goes to the children and young people of Rome. Thank you for coming! You have come for the traditional blessing of the Baby Jesus figurines for your cribs. Dear young friends, when you place the Baby Jesus in the grotto or stable, say a prayer for the Pope and his intentions. Thank you!
I also greet your parents, teachers and catechists. I thank the Centro Oratori Romani (Roman Centre for After-School Activities and Prayer Groups) for this initiative and I likewise thank the Santa Marta Pediatric Clinic.
I then desire to remind you that next Thursday afternoon, 16 December, in St Peter’s Basilica, I shall celebrate Vespers with the university students in Rome, in preparation for Holy Christmas.
I welcome all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present for our Angelus prayer. The Liturgy of this Third Sunday of Advent, marked by joyful expectation of the Lord’s coming, invites us to open our eyes to the many signs of Christ’s saving power in our midst. May these days of preparation for Christmas be for all of us, a time of attentiveness to God’s word, genuine conversion and inner renewal. Upon you and your families I invoke joy and peace in Jesus our Saviour. I wish everyone a good Sunday and a good week!
Pope Benedict XVI
Angelus Address, December 16, 2007
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
“Gaudete in Domino semper – Rejoice in the Lord always (Phil 4: 4). Holy Mass of the Third Sunday of Advent opens with these words of St Paul and is therefore called “gaudete” Sunday. The Apostle urges Christians to rejoice because the Lord’s coming, that is, his glorious return, is certain and will not be delayed. The Church makes this invitation her own while she prepares to celebrate Christmas and her gaze is focused ever more intently on Bethlehem. Indeed, we wait with hope, certain of Christ’s second coming because we have experienced his first. The mystery of Bethlehem reveals to us God-with-us, the God close to us and not merely in the spatial and temporal sense; he is close to us because he has, as it were, “espoused” our humanity; he has taken our condition upon himself, choosing to be like us in all things save sin in order to make us become like him. Christian joy thus springs from this certainty: God is close, he is with me, he is with us, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health, as a friend and faithful spouse. And this joy endures, even in trials, in suffering itself. It does not remain only on the surface; it dwells in the depths of the person who entrusts himself to God and trusts in him.
Some people ask: but is this joy still possible today? Men and women of every age and social condition, happy to dedicate their existence to others, give us the answer with their lives! Was not Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta an unforgettable witness of true Gospel joy in our time? She lived in touch daily with wretchedness, human degradation and death. Her soul knew the trials of the dark night of faith, yet she gave everyone God’s smile. In one of her writings, we read: “We wait impatiently for paradise, where God is, but it is in our power to be in paradise even here on earth and from this moment. Being happy with God means loving like him, helping like him, giving like him, serving like him” (The Joy of Giving to Others, 1987, p. 143). Yes, joy enters the hearts of those who put themselves at the service of the lowly and poor. God abides in those who love like this and their souls rejoice. If, instead, people make an idol of happiness, they lose their way and it is truly hard for them to find the joy of which Jesus speaks. Unfortunately, this is what is proposed by cultures that replace God by individual happiness, mindsets that find their emblematic effect in seeking pleasure at all costs, in spreading drug use as an escape, a refuge in artificial paradises that later prove to be entirely deceptive.
Dear brothers and sisters, one can lose the way even at Christmas, one can exchange the true celebration for one that does not open the heart to Christ’s joy. May the Virgin Mary help all Christians and people in search of God to reach Bethlehem, to encounter the Child who was born for us, for salvation and for the happiness of all humanity.
After the Angelus:
I would like to greet the children and young people of Rome who have come here in large numbers this year in spite of the cold to receive the blessing of the Christ Child figurines for their cribs. Dear friends, with great affection I wish you and your relatives a good Christmas. And as I thank the Centro Oratori Romani which organizes this beautiful initiative, I urge priests, parents and catechists to collaborate enthusiastically in the Christian education of children. Thanks to you all and a good Sunday!
