3rd Sunday of Advent (A)

3rd Sunday of Advent (A)
Dec. 16, 2007

CHRIST IS INDEED THE ONE!

During Advent, we wait expectantly for the coming of Christ at Christmas. We wait expectantly because we are aware of our poverty and emptiness, conditions described in the first reading from the prophet Isaiah. In a sense, the landscape of our life is sometimes like a desert when we feel terribly lonely, or like parched land when our activity is barren of the fruit of good works.

At times our eyes are blind when we fail to see the opportunities we have in our present situation. Our ears are deaf when we do not listen to God’s word or to the cry of the poor. Our hands are feeble and our knees weak when we lack the courage to meet our commitments. Sometimes we become lame and a burden on society when we can carry our own load and don’t. We become dumb when we can protest against injustice and don’t!

But we must not allow our weaknesses and failures to discourage us. Rather, they should make us desire Christ’s coming all the more. At least this is the attitude of the liturgy, and it should be ours too.

In the first reading, we are told by Isaiah: “Things are going bad, but you will see the glory of the Lord. So, be strong and fear not.” In the gospel Jesus says: “Go back and report what you hear and see. The blind recover their sight and the deaf hear. Cripples walk and dead men rise to life.”

In other words, we don’t have to stay the way we are- weak, blind or crippled. Our Savior is coming at Christmas to bring us strength, light and healing. We don’t have to look for one another. Jesus is the one who is to come. We need no other. He is our way, our truth, and our life.

Moreover, our question becomes a MISSION. Once we’ve experienced His presence and power in our lives, we are sent to share these with others. “Go back to your homes and neighborhoods and places of work,” our Lord says, “and REPORT what you have seen and heard. Tell them too that I am indeed the one who was to come, and that they need look for no other.”

Jesus came to bring the good news of the Father. When we go to our fellow, do we bring God’s good news with us?