The Third Sunday of Advent
December 8, 2013
Listen to this homily (mp3 file)
Any of you who really know me are aware that patience does not figure high among
any virtues I may have. I hate to wait! I envy people who, when caught in
traffic gridlock, are able to sit patiently behind the wheel, think kind
thoughts and say their prayers. And I envy people who chill out and go with the
flow when they pass through airport security. Not me. After I pick what looks to
be the fastest-moving line but which always turns out to be the slowest. I do
the slow burn. It’s no different at the bank or the supermarket or in choosing
freeway lanes. And even though I try to tell myself that waiting is good – that
it builds character -- I have yet to convince myself.
Advent, with its invitation to slow down, was made
for people like me. In today’s second reading, James gave us two fine models for
slowing down, for patient waiting: the farmer and the prophet. They may seem an
unlikely twosome, but both have something important in common: farmers plant
their seeds and then they wait for the rain and sun to do their work; prophets
plant the seed of God’s Word and then wait for grace to do its work, wait for
the Word to take root, opening closed minds and softening hard hearts.
James wrote his letter to people who were tired of
waiting, people who were becoming impatient about Jesus’ return in glory. Things
were dragging on and on and weren’t getting any better. If anything, they were
getting worse: the righteous were suffering, the poor were getting poorer and
the wealthy were prospering. Did God see this, they wondered? Did God care?
James’ only answer to them was to be patient like the farmer and the prophet.
“Make your hearts firm,” he said, “the Lord is coming.”
I wonder if James’ advice worked. I’m guessing it
got mixed reviews.
The gospel gave us John the Baptist who definitely
gets mixed reviews on patience. John was patient to a point but he was certainly
no poster boy for patience. He was languishing in King Herod’s prison and
tired of waiting, waiting for the fulfillment of what he had preached and
promised; waiting for the long-awaited Messiah to do what he was supposed to do.
John’s patience was running out when he sent disciples to Jesus to ask him: “Are
you the one who is to come or should we look for another?” We can
sympathize with John, can’t we? I know I can.
But then I need, and so do we all, to listen to
Jesus’ answer. Reaching back to Isaiah’s great prophecy spoken many
hundreds of years earlier, Jesus offered evidence that the prophecy was being
fulfilled. In him. The blind were seeing, he said, the lame walking, lepers
were being cleansed, the deaf were hearing, the dead were being raised, and the
poor were having the good news preached to them. And he added: “Blessed is
the one who takes no offense at me.” Was that Jesus’ way of telling John
to be patient? Maybe.
Now, ‘fast forward’ to this moment. To our world, to
this place, this time. If we had a chance to ask Jesus a question I wonder if it
would differ much from John’s question, “Are you the one who is to come?”
Our issues may be different from the Baptist’s, but our question is largely the
same: how can you be the One, Lord, when so much is wrong with the world and
with life in general?
For starters, our world is convulsed by natural
disasters (earthquakes, typhoons, floods, volcanic eruptions), and our world is
equally convulsed by disasters of our own making (wars, terrorist plots, school
shootings, reckless pillage of the environment). And our country? Our
country seems to be on life-support these days with deep political divisions,
callous disregard for the poor, the unborn, the unemployed, and an ever-growing
gulf between rich and poor. And then there are our own personal lives which much
of the time are far from serene: we struggle with addictions, battle all kinds
of illnesses, work hard to make ends meet, sacrifice for our kids, care for
aging parents, deal with divorce and family break-ups, mourn the loss of loved
ones. The Baptist’s question to Jesus is our question, too: “Are you the one who
is to come or shall we look for another?”
And the only answer we get is the one Jesus sent to
John: “The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are being cleansed, the deaf hear,
the dead are being raised, and the poor are having the good news proclaimed to
them.” That’s the answer. And while it may not satisfy, it’s no less true,
because Jesus is accomplishing those things. He is. How? Through people like you
and me. Through loving communities like ours. Through the Church. He is working
through us to reach out and raise up, to heal and welcome, to love and forgive,
to care for and shelter, to bring good news to those in the shadows and on the
margins.
My friends, John the Baptist is our ally, our Advent
ally. His impatient question from prison gives legitimacy to our
impatience. He makes it okay for us to question and to wonder. But during
these Advent days, dark yet pierced by hope, we can be grateful for the answer
Jesus gave to John. Steadily, quietly, imperceptibly, against all
evidence, but with a momentum that is irreversible because it is God’s momentum,
the Kingdom of God is being built. And God is using us to help build it!
Father Michael G. Ryan
