Watch this homily!
If you
know me at all, you know 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. I have an uncanny ability to choose the
fastest-moving line which invariably turns out to be the slowest.
It’s no different at the supermarket or in choosing freeway lanes.
And even though I try to tell myself that waiting 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 regularly
convulsed by natural disasters (earthquakes, hurricanes, floods,
volcanic eruptions), and our world is equally convulsed by disasters
of our own making (wars, terrorist plots, school shootings - not to
mention our reckless pillage of the environment). And our country?
Our country is on life-support these days with deep political
divisions, name-calling, gross dishonesty, fake news, and serious
threats to our democracy. And then there are our own personal lives
which are often 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 family break-ups, mourn
the loss of loved ones. The Baptist’s question 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 sinful yet
holy 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.
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 depends on us to help build
it!
Father Michael G. Ryan
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