Look Within: The Third Sunday in Advent 2025

                                                                          Look Within:

The Third Sunday in Advent 2025 

December 14, 2025

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

 

Standing by the Jordan River, within sight of John the Baptist, Jesus asks the crowd, “What are you looking for?” and “What do you hope to see?” He wants them to articulate for themselves why they traveled so far to see something transcendent. There is a restlessness in their souls that can only be satisfied with an encounter with God. They want to know that God knows and remembers them. The question remains, “Do I matter to God?

 

          I want to ask you a question. Are you okay with being restless? In what parts of your life do you experience restlessness and what do you do with it? Perhaps another way of asking it is, “Where are you still unreconciled? Has there been a part of your life where you have simply settled and you have stopped trying?” This restlessness is good because that is where God is operative. I suggest that we embrace that restlessness because God’s desires are within that restlessness. It is where God is bringing about change in your life. Do not be afraid of these feelings because they will lead us to a more fulfilled place. 

 

Jesus asks why the people are so curious about the spectacle of John the Baptist and what he represents. They are looking for an outward manifestation of God. He wonders: Why do we look for answers out there when God is inside us and within us? Jesus preached that the Kingdom of God is among you. It is all around. It is wherever people are reconciling and connecting with one another. Why don't we look within? That’s where we will find God. God is present in our heart and in our soul, and when the love in us encounters the love in another person, God is present like an explosion of energy. God is not one who can be captured on the outside. Every increase of love, every increase of compassion and mercy is an encounter with the God who is within.

 

In what do we hope when we come to Church? What do we expect will happen? Each person may have a unique answer, and here is the message I want you to receive and to know. You matter to God. You belong. God wants you, and God’s heart is restless until you accept this love. You are important to God, no matter who you are or what you have done. God remembers you – fondly, uniquely, lovingly – and God wants to share God’s life with you. God gives you, not just God’s presence, but also a community that is loved by God. You are given a community to support you and to help you deepen your experience of this magnanimous love. You are given to a community to be cherished and nurtured. God wants you to have a deeply felt knowledge of God’s embrace of you and a deeply felt knowledge of God’s dream for the world. Our experience of worship at Church ought to be one of awe and wonder at the certain belief that God is indeed desiring you and caring for you and seeking the best for you.

 

Why did you come here today? What do you seek? God’s presence is the place of fulfillment where the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and God is here. Yes, there are outward signs and wonders. Yes, there are symbols and sacraments. The glory of the Lord is within you. Look inward. Look within. Look into your soul and then go tell others what you hear and see. This is indeed a day of gladness. 

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

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 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.

 

December 18 - O Adonai, and leader of the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: come to rescue us with your mighty power.

 

December 19 - O root of Jesse's stem, sign of God's love for all the people, before you the kings will be silenced, to you the nations will make their prayers: come to save us without delay!

 

December 20 - O key of David, and scepter of the house of Israel, opening the gates of God's eternal kingdom: come and free the prisoners of darkness.

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• 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. 
• December 18, 1594. At Florence, the apparition of St Ignatius to St Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi. 
• December 19, 1593. At Rome, Fr. Robert Bellarmine was appointed rector of the Roman College. 
• December 20, 1815. A ukase of Alexander I was published banishing the Society of Jesus from St Petersburg and Moscow on the pretext that they were troubling the Russian Church.