Bulletin December 15, 2013

3^rd Sunday in Advent A cycle

Isaiah 35:1-6, 10; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11
It is ten days to Christmas. When I was young I counted every day and at the same time I knew that I had to be ready but also to be good. Being ready was all the preparation: helping with decorating, doing whatever shopping a little guy would do, paying attention to the Advent Tree and the necessary spiritual preparations especially with going to Confession, as it was known then. I did these but I also was highly charged up but there always was that ‘caveat’: don’t be too anxious, and too ‘rambunctious’ as my mom would say. Well needless to say a few times when the stockings were hung by the fireplace, I had some coal in mine, just a little reminder of my need for living within the moment, my huge need for patience. Today’s readings are about patience from the spiritual perspective which is a call for me to ‘pay attention.’
Isaiah uses patience through the gift of nature by showing the contrast between parched lands and fields blooming with abundant flowers. Carmel and Sharon were noted for their beautiful forest and gorgeous flowers. This contrasts with the desert sands and their exile experiences. Everything seemed bleak to them but Isaiah wants the people to look beyond the exile. One day they will be free, they will return to their homeland, one day they will again realize that they have been formed as God’s people and the experience of the deprivation will make them so much wiser. How many times when I look at what is happening in my life I have that same feeling of bleakness. Thoughts of: Is there any way out, will things change, why am I so negative come to mind. I push out hope and as a result I’m no ‘fun to be around’. I definitely am not exuding the joy of the Lord. Isaiah says God is always present, doesn’t that thought enliven me? I think I don’t want it to, but think if I allow it to be so.
James the author of the second reading today was not one of the two members of the Twelve. He is identified as a “slave of God and of the Lord Jesus.” This probably refers to the third New Testament personage name James, a relative of Jesus who is usually called “brother of the Lord and was a leader of the Jewish Christian community in Jerusalem. Paul said he was one of the “pillars” of the church and is seen in the Acts of the Apostles as the authorized spokesman for the Jewish Christian position in the early Church. Today he is advising ‘patience “until the coming of the Lord.” The newly-baptized Christians were anxiously anticipating Jesus’ return as a king. Five times he uses the word ‘patient’. It is interesting that the English word ‘patient’ comes for the Latin word for suffering. As a little kid waiting for Christmas, waiting for Santa, it was almost like I was suffering. James is urging the people and every Christian to have patience with one another. He is very astute for he recognizes that impatience leads to bad feelings, which jeopardize the very peace that people were working to establish. If I am looked at as being a person who brings Jesus, how can I do this if I come without peace in my life?
In the Gospel, John the Baptist is in prison. It is evident that his confidence has begun to fade. Why isn’t Jesus doing something? There is no evidence that John was a patient man. He spoke ‘point blank’, directly, telling people how to reform their lives. He told this to everyone, tax collectors, soldiers even Herod himself. When Jesus came to him, he declared that Jesus was the ‘Lamb of God.’ Now he was anxious. He was positive that he would soon be put to death. So was Jesus ‘the man’ or is another coming?
Jesus allows His deeds to speak for themselves: what He is doing is what Isaiah prophesized: Faith Catholic describes it in this way “Jesus is the face of God, allowing the blind to see the Father through Him, the deaf to hear God’s saving word through Jesus’ human lips, the lame can walk with our Lord along His way of the cross, the lepers are untouchable no more as Jesus reaches out to them, the Good News is preened and the hope of the Resurrection is strengthened.” What a message for me. Believing in Jesus means that God is accomplishing His work, however slowly it seems to me. Perhaps I am the one that is slowly being Jesus to people who come each day in my life in need of healing, compassion, forgiveness and love. So am I the impatient one like John the Baptist, or am I asking the Spirit for the grace to bring God’s gifts to others?

Fr. Henri Nouwen wrote this in Bread for the World, “Waiting is essential to the spiritual life. But waiting as a disciple of Jesus is not an empty waiting. It is a waiting with a promise in our hearts that makes already present what we are waiting for. We wait during Advent for the birth of Jesus. We wait after Easter for the coming of the Spirit, and after the ascension of Jesus we wait for His coming again in glory. We are always waiting, but it is a waiting in the conviction that we have already seen God’s footsteps.

Waiting for God is an active, alert—yes, joyful---waiting. As we wait we remember Him for whom we are waiting, and as we remember Him we create a community ready to welcome Him when He comes.” So if I am part of creating I must be active in building a body of believers to spread the Good News of God’s love. Am I doing this? So I reflect on:

• How patient am I? How do I develop patience?
  
• How do I encourage and reassure someone who comes to me all worn out?
  
• “Why does Jesus say that the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist? Do we feel Jesus was speaking about us, as well?
  
• Am I as much a herald of Jesus’ coming as John was? Am I afraid of being too vocal and demonstrative about Jesus and His part in my life? Why? What might happen if I really announced His presence to my world?
  

Sacred Space 20134 summarizes the gospel so succinctly: “Great as John was, we see that he did not live with pure certainty. He followed in faith even as he allowed good questions to be asked. I pray that I may ask the right questions and, like John the Baptist, always direct them to Jesus.

Jesus does not answer with a statement of authority but points to His actions. I show who Jesus is to me by the way I live, by how I affirm and help the weak and poor.”