2nd Sunday of Advent – December 5, 2010
(Matthew. 11: 2-10)
(Parallel Gospel: Luke. 7: 18-27)
John the Baptist sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus if He was the One to come or should they look for another. But John was a cousin of Jesus. At the River Jordan, John told the crowd, “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who taketh away the sins of the world.” It's true that John knew who Jesus was. So why did John ask “art thou he that art to come”? Well, he didn't ask it. John knew that he was about to die so he sent his disciples to ask this question of Jesus. This was for the benefit of his disciples, so that they would know and believe in Jesus after John was dead.
Jesus did not tell John's disciples, “Yes, I am he.” If He did, they might have accused Jesus of giving testimony of himself, or in our modern words, they might have accused Him of blowing His own horn, as the Pharisees accused Him at John. 8: v 13. Instead, Jesus tells them to tell John what they have heard and seen; the blind see, the crippled walk, the deaf hear, lepers are cured, the dead come back to life and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
John knew that it was important that these two disciples he sent learn about Jesus firsthand and come to believe that He is the Messiah. These two disciples were offended and scandalized by the things they heard about what Jesus was saying and doing. How do we know that? Because Jesus, knowing their hearts and their thoughts, rebuked them secretly, and at the same time forgave them, when he said, “blessed is he that shall not be scandalized in Me.”
There were many who were scandalized when, after seeing Jesus perform so many miracles, they later saw Him dying on the cross. This was difficult for many people at that time, and that is why St. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians. 1:23: “We preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to the Jews.”
After John's disciples left to tell John what they saw and heard, Jesus spoke to the crowds about John the Baptist. He asked them: “What went you out into the desert to see? A reed shaken with the wind?” A reed bends with the wind, and signifies a person who changes his mind about something as often as the wind changes directions. John was certainly not like a reed in the wind, and Jesus proves that by asking the crowd why they abandoned the comforts of the city to go out into the arid desert, unless they were expecting to see something great, something unchanging. John was unchanging and fearless. To the sinners of his day he said, “You serpents, generation of vipers, how will you flee from the judgment of hell? (Matthew 23: 33) John did not mince words.
At the end of today's reading Jesus says John is more than a prophet. “For this is he of whom it is written: 'Behold I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee.'” This is from Malachias 3:1. But John the Baptist was a man, not an angel as we know of angels in heaven. The Greek word for messenger is angelus. John was called an angel because he was a messenger of Christ. John announced the coming and then the arrival of the Messiah promised to the Jews.
How was John greater than the other prophets? The other prophets also announced the coming of the Lord, but John was also to prepare the way for His imminent arrival. Imminent means coming soon. By preaching penance and by baptizing, John prepared the hearts of those who would soon hear Christ speak and see Him perform miracles. That is why Jesus called John an angel, just as Malachias had predicted. In Greek the word is angelus, in Latin nuntius, in English messenger. That is St. John.
What are we to make of the coming of the Christ? He gives us perfect freedom, freedom from sin, freedom from error, freedom from the wealth of this world, which always rusts away. St. Patrick gives a simple description of our situation as humans in The Book of the Three Habitations. There are three abodes, or places to live, all subject to God: Heaven, this present world and hell. Heaven and hell are completely opposed to each other. There is no bond between them. The middle abode, our present lives, has many resemblances both to Heaven and hell. In our lives we see and experience light and darkness, health and sickness, good and evil, love and hate, hunger and fullness, wealth and poverty – an endless list – and all of these has either a resemblance to Heaven or to hell. In Heaven all are good and no one is evil. In hell all are evil and no one is good. Each place is filled with the souls of we who pass through our lives on earth. The coming of the Christ opened the gates of Heaven for us. We choose what we want our eternity to be like, perfect happiness without end or perfect hell without end. +++
A Prayer from Jeremias: 23: 5,6
(Prophetic life: 627-585 B. C.)
“Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will raise up to David a just branch: and a king shall reign, and shall be wise: and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In those days shall Juda be saved, and Israel shall dwell confidently: and this is the name
that they shall call him: The Lord, our just one.”
We are the new Israel. We have the inherited the Old Testament.
We have accepted the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ, and believe His Gospel,
and we live confidently now in Faith, Hope and Charity. +++
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