What did you go to see?: The Third Sunday of Advent

                                                   What did you go to see?:

The Third Sunday of Advent

December 11, 2022

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Isaiah 35:1-10; Psalm 146; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11

 

          Jesus addresses his potential followers asking them about this person called the Baptist who arouses great curiosity. In many ways, he is a spectacle, a non-conformist who seeks solitude and a contemplative life, but he is much more than a prophet because he gives the people hope in God’s promises. Jesus praises John and regards him as the greatest prophet, who is preparing everyone to see the in-breaking presence of God in their world, but his question is poignant. What was the real reason you went to see John? It was not because of his distinctive style. They saw in John a hope that God was being manifested in his preaching.

 

          What do we want to see during Advent? I would venture to say that we want to know that God cares for us personally. Sure, we can trust those words that are spoken by preachers, but we want to experience it so that we know it. I just visited someone in the hospital who has been in intense pain for a week without constant medicinal relief. In that pain, she cries out to have someone hear her and visit her. New visiting hours restrict pastoral visits, and, as she is in a vulnerable state, she wants to know that God sees her in her suffering. The day before, I visited a hospitalized colleague who beamed when she saw someone from the church and from her workplace visit her. We talked for two hours and we spent time together after her lengthy, isolating hospital stay. She was glad to be connected to her pre-hospital life where she could share her stories, fears, and hopes. From there, I attended a former young colleague’s wake, where I saw dear former co-workers who were more than happy to share meaningful moments of the past years. I returned home in stunned silence just to revere and appreciate those moments.

 

          A commonality in these visits is that each person, in his or her own way, cries out to God to be seen, heard, and known, and most importantly, specially loved, and each feels it when someone visits them and cares for them. Just as the Jews went to see John the Baptist and wondered, “Will God really show up?,” we also have those same questions? Will people show up for me? How many people carry with them the hurt that someone in the family did not visit during a hospitalization or a down time, a time of their vulnerability when they are wondering about the most meaningful questions in life? How many people say, “Don’t bother having a wake for me because few will come. They didn’t visit me in life. I don’t expect them to visit me in death.” Each of us want to be meaningful to others. Each of us want to be meaningful to God, and we want to know it, really know that God cares for us, and if our friends and colleagues don’t visit us, we wonder why God would visit us. Conversely, we have to ask, “Do I show up for others who are in need and are vulnerable?”

          In Advent, this question is pertinent. In the deepest part of our soul, for what do we hope? The Jewish scripture is filled with references that God will visit us, that we are worth visiting, that God wants to be with us, that we are both loved and lovable, even with all the chaos and poor decisions in our life. No matter how we are, God still wants to visit us. This is God’s earnest desire, that we end our loneliness, our isolation, that we dismantle the barriers that keep us separate, so we connect again and bond with the one who offers us meaning, the one who will save us from our disturbances, the one who wants to hold our hand in silence, the one who wants to love us to our core in ways that nothing else can, and when we receive it, we will see the promises of God unfold within our soul. This God will redeem us. We will see the glory of the Lord appear as reality and promise, and our hearts will be filled with joy. 

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

 

First Reading: 

Monday: (Zechariah 2) Rejoice, O daughter Zion. I am coming to dwell among you. The Lord will possess Judah and he will again choose Jerusalem.

 

Tuesday: (Zephaniah 3) On that day, I will change and purify their lips that they may call upon the name of the Lord. You shall not exalt yourself on my holy mountain.

 

Wednesday: (Isaiah 45) I am the Lord; there is no other; I form the light and create the darkness. Turn to be and be safe all you ends of the earth for I am the Lord, your God.

 

Thursday: (Isaiah 54) Raise a glad cry, you barren one who did not bear, break forth in jubilant song you who were not in labor.    

 

Friday (Isaiah 56) Observe what is right; do what is just; for my salvation is about to come; my justice is about to be revealed.

 

Saturday (Genesis 49) Jacob said: You Judah, shall your brothers praise. The scepter will never depart from you, or the mace from between your legs.  

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Luke 1) The angel Gabriel was sent to a virgin betrothed to Joseph to announce that the Holy Spirit would overpower her and she would conceive a son. 

 

Tuesday: (Matthew 21) A man had two sons – one who said no, but did what his father asked; the other who said yes, but did not do what he asked. Which son was better?

 

Wednesday (Luke 7) The Baptist sent his disciples at ask: Are you the one who is to come? Look around: the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and the poor hear the good news.

 

Thursday (Luke 7) Jesus asked: Why did you go out to see the Baptist? He is the greatest of men born to women.   

 

Friday (John 5) The Baptist was a burning and shining lamp, and for a while you were content to rejoice in his lift, but I have greater testimony than John’s.

 

Saturday (Matthew 1) The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus.

 

Saints of the Week

 

December 12: The feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is celebrated to remember the four apparitions to Juan Diego in 1531 near Mexico City shortly after the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs. Mary appeared as a native Mexican princess and her image is imprinted on a cloak that was presented to the bishop. 

 

December 13: Lucy, martyr (d. 304), was born into a noble Sicilian family and killed during the Diocletian persecution. In the Middle Ages, people with eye trouble invoked her aid because her name means "light." Scandinavia today still honors Lucy in a great festival of light on this day.

 

December 14: John of the Cross, priest and doctor (1542-1591), was a Carmelite who reformed his order with the help of Teresa of Avila. They created the Discalced (without shoes) Carmelite Order that offered a stricter interpretation of their rules. John was opposed by his community and placed in prison for a year. He wrote the classics, "Ascent of Mount Carmel," "Dark Night of the Soul," and "Living Flame of Love."

 

Saints are not celebrated during the octave leading up to Christmas.

 

December 17 - O Wisdom, coming forth from the mouth of our God Most High, guiding creation with power and love: come to teach us the path of knowledge.

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• December 11, 1686. At Rome, Fr. Charles de Noyelle, a Belgian, died as the 12th general of the Society. 
• December 12, 1661. In the College of Clermont, Paris, Fr. James Caret publicly defended the doctrine of papal infallibility, causing great excitement among the Gallicans and Jansenists. 
• December 13, 1545. The opening of the Council of Trent to which Frs. Laynez and Salmeron were sent as papal theologians and Fr. Claude LeJay as theologian of Cardinal Otho Truchses. 
• December 14, 1979. The death of Riccardo Lombardi, founder of the Better World Movement. 
• December 15, 1631. At Naples, during an earthquake and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the Jesuits worked to help all classes of people. 
• December 16, 1544. Francis Xavier entered Cochin. 
• December 17, 1588. At Paris, Fr. Henry Walpole was ordained.