On this Third Sunday of Advent I have a very important question for you: have you finished your Christmas shopping? Depending upon how you count them, there are only about ten shopping days until Christmas. We’re in the final countdown. Many of us can feel the pressure which usually comes when we have to work under a deadline. Unfortunately, for many people, Christmas, itself, has become a “deadline,” a time when everything has to come together, when what comes after the deadline is not as important as meeting the deadline, itself.
We all realize this should not be the case. Yet, year-after-year, we seem to look forward to the downtime that comes on December 26, rather than to the celebration of the birthday of the Christ Child on the 25th. For all of us who want to strive for what even our commercials call “the true meaning of Christmas,” I have three alternative questions to the one I raised about your Christmas shopping. The questions for today’s reflection are:
● What are you waiting for in life?
● What did you go out to the desert to see?
● Whom did Jesus come to heal?
You might prefer the one on Christmas shopping, but I’d suggest the three alternatives may carry us beyond looking at Christmas day as a deadline to be survived.
So, for the first question: what are you waiting for in life? The real reason for asking this question is because of a single theme we find in all three readings for today, the theme of patience. Our whole life seems to be a mix of patience and impatience, of waiting and hoping. Little girls have to wait until they are old enough to wear make-up and later on, to go out on dates. Little boys have to wait until they are old enough to trade in their toy cars for a real one. Parents have to wait-it-out while their kids grow beyond the terrible twos. And then, they wait for them to go off to school so they can have some free time, just as older parents can’t wait until their sons and daughters go off to college and the parents can really have some free time. And then they wait for them to get a job, which may be even more of a challenge than waiting for them to go to kindergarten or college.
We each wait for something, and while we wait, we hope we will be satisfied with what we finally get. Yet, much of the time we aren’t content when the waiting is over. We always seem to be waiting for something else. The man or woman without a job has to wait. They need to wait for a response to the resumes and applications they’ve sent out. They have to wait for telephone calls and interviews and call-backs. But people with jobs have to wait, too. How many people are there who have a job, but are not content with it? They have to wait for someone to leave in order for them to advance. Or the working situation is so bad all you can do is wait until the boss leaves and you can get another one.
In the days of John the Baptist, people waited for the same things. Slaves waited for the death of a terrible master and hoped the next one would be more kind. Husbands waited for a wife who would serve them and wives waited for husbands to protect them. (Well, maybe that has changed in 2000 years.) In days long ago, parents waited for their children to grow old enough to be of help to them. They waited for the same conditions we wait for today.
But in Israel they also waited for something we do not wait for. Or rather, for some One: the messiah, the savior. John the Baptist expected him at any moment. There was one man John thought might be the one he awaited. And so, he sent off his own followers to learn more about this man, the one called Jesus. In today’s Gospel we heard Jesus’ response to the disciples of John the Baptist. He gave the response Isaiah had prophesied for the messiah five-hundred years before: “then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag; then the tongue of the dumb will sing.” This is what the disciples of John had seen. This is what they were to report back to him.
But then, Jesus turned to the crowds around him and asked them a question. What did you go out to the desert to see? Did you go out to find the expected? Did you go out to see a reed swaying in the wind? Did you go out to the wilderness to find a man dressed in royal purple when you know such a prince should be sought elsewhere?
These questions may be asked of us, today. When you now wait in the desert of your own making, do you wait for what you expect to find and, thereby, limit what might be out there? What the Lord might have in store for you. What did you go out to the desert to see? Did you go out to find what you knew ahead of time you could not find? When you, now, wait in the desert of your own making, do you wait for what you know you cannot find there and hope the Lord will grant you a special miracle? What did you go out to the desert to see? Did you go out to find someone who spoke for God and therefore had all the answers? Did you go out to find a prophet? When you wait in the desert of your own making, do you wait for someone else to tell you what God expects of you? Do you wait for someone else to solve your problems for you?
Or did you go out to the desert to find John, a simple man who waited with patience and who looked forward to the coming of his Lord. Are there, indeed, times when all we can do is wait patiently? Are we called at times to be like the desert, itself, the parched desert awaiting the rains, and following the rains, a cascade of flowers? The desert can do nothing but wait. Or the seed that the farmer plants? Can either the seed or the farmer hasten the winter and spring rains? Must both wait patiently?
It’s hard for most of us to wait patiently. We always need to be doing something. And that’s our problem right now as we wait for Christmas day. During Advent, we seem to be caught up in all the things we need to do before December 25. With buying and mailing presents to out-of-town friends and relatives. With mailing Christmas cards. With baking special goodies or making special gifts.
We feel guilty if we don’t do all of this. With all this rushing about, it’s no wonder we’re tired of the Christmas season, and don’t want to hear one more carol. And yet, we seem to think we must be completely prepared to celebrate the birth of the Christ Child in another ten days. What we seem to forget is that the Christ Child will not be born in another ten days. We need to remember he was born some two thousand years ago. He is born within us each moment of our life. He is with us here and now. We need not wait for his coming ten days from now. He is here with us. He is Emmanuel. He is God with us.
Isaiah told us what to look for: the one who heals. And so I come to my third and last question: whom has Jesus come to heal? Sometimes, we tend to think Jesus has come to heal only those who are physically blind, or deaf, or lame, or mute. But rather than thinking about how he has come to heal others, perhaps, I need to reflect on how he has come to heal me while I wait. Rather than asking what must I do, what must I achieve or accomplish in the next ten days, or the next ten months or ten years for myself, my family, and my friends, perhaps, I need to ask myself: how has Jesus come to heal me, right now?
Rather than making judgements about others who might be blind, perhaps, I might consider how I am blind to the beauty around me. Perhaps, I should reflect not on the deafness of others, but how am I deaf to the words of love spoken to me right now by those around me. Rather than considering others who are mute, perhaps, I need to reflect on how I am unable to say “thank you” for what has been given to me. It’s not a question of others who are lame, but why can I not dance in joy and happiness for what God has already given me?
The readings for today have once more reminded me that I must wait with patience. There are times I must be accepting of what is. I need to see not the bad, but the good. When I go to the desert, I need to be open to what the Lord will provide, rather than to what I expect to find there.
And while I wait, there are times when I need to recall how he heals me of my blindness so I can see the beauty I now have. He heals me of my deafness so I can hear the love I now have. He heals me of my muteness so I can speak words of love to others. He heals me of my lameness so I can dance my joy and happiness.
The Kingdom is now and will come. The celebration of Christmas will come, but it is with us now. Today is the Third Sunday of Advent. In the old calendar it was called “rose Sunday,” because of the rose-colored or pink vestments worn on this day. It was also called “Gaudete Sunday” from the opening line of today’s Mass. The Latin word, gaudete, means “rejoice.” And this is what we are called to do and to be. Rejoice, our Lord has come.
And so, we are back where we began. Either you can think about all of the Christmas shopping you need to do, or you can ponder three other questions. What are you waiting for in life? What do you go out to the desert to see? And finally: how has Jesus come to heal you? Now!
Third Sunday of Advent; December 14, 1986
Is 35:1-6,10; Jas 5:7-10; Mt 11:2-11