On this Gaudete Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Joy, I would like to focus with you on the Gospel, St. John the Baptist, and Jesus’ question – what did you come to look at?
St. John the Baptist is the greatest among all prophets, and is the messenger, who prepares the way before the Messiah. As we had heard in the Gospel, St. John is in prison, enclosed in a cell, knowing perhaps, that his life is nearing its end. This is the same John the Baptist who leapt with joy in his mother’s womb, when Our Lady visited St. Elizabeth. That was at the beginning of his life – and now St. John is at the end of his earthly days, in a jail cell. St. John’s heart is so full of zeal and love for Jesus the Lamb of God, that even from prison, John directs his disciples to go, and ask Jesus directly – are you the one who is to come? St. John is so intent, so focused on seeking out the truth, that he puts his personal popularity, his personal comfort last, and through his disciples, asks Our Lord a simple question – are you the Messiah? As we have in our mind the image of St. John in prison, let us remember those men and women, wrongly condemned, who populate prison cells, also in today’s world – among them many Christians.
Our Lord answers St. John’s question by listing the prophetic signs that He is accomplishing: the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are healed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news brought to them. This last part is especially close to the heart of any Missionary Oblate of Mary Immaculate, because the motto of our religious congregation, our mission statement says “Evangelizare pauperibus misit me” or “He has sent me to bring the Good News to the poor”; the second half of our mission statement is “Pauperes evangelizantur” or “the poor have the good news brought to them” – which forms part of Our Lord’s answer to John’s question in today’s Gospel. Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate form part of that cohort, that army, that prepares the world for coming of the Kingdom of Christ.
Our Gospel today ends at verse 11, but if we were to continue reading, verse 12 would say to us, “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force”. St. Jerome speaks to this, as he writes, “For great indeed is the violence, when we who are born of the earth, seek an abode in heaven, and obtain by excellence what we have not by nature” (Catena Aurea, Thomas Aquinas ed., vol. 1, 2014, pg. 344). The taking and living of religious vows is that asceticism that forms part of that struggle against natural inclinations, a struggle that should win one a place at the heavenly banquet.
As St. John’s disciples go away, Jesus turns to the crowds, and, so to speak, puts the ball back in their court. He asks the crowds, what did you go out to look at - what did you come to see? A reed in the wind? Here, the Lord is making a reference to King Herod, because “the reed was a “Herodian symbol” (The New Interpreter’s Study Bible, Walter J. Harrelson ed., 2003, pg. 1765). In other words, are you looking for an opinion maker, someone close to the circles of power, an influencer? This is not St. John the Baptist.
My brothers and sisters, what do we come to see, when we come to church, also this church? This is a parish over 100 years old, with many traditions, with different and varied groups, a church that has both problems and potential. In the midst of these, do we come here to to see Christ, both Man and God, who will speak to us through the sacraments, through the liturgy, through the Word of God, through preaching, through brothers and sisters in the faith? These are building blocks of faith. These building blocks should lead us slowly but surely, to a personal encounter with Christ. It was in such a personal encounter with Christ, that St. John the Baptist, sitting in a dark prison cell, found joy. St. John the Baptist found joy as he was seeking the truth about the Messiah. Speaking of the encounter of truth and joy, St. Pope Paul VI wrote, “Raising up man in the setting of a universe that is the work of His power, wisdom and love…God disposes the mind and heart of His creature to meet joy, at the same time as truth. One should therefore be attentive to the appeal that rises from man's heart, from the age of wondering childhood to serene old age, as a presentiment of the divine mystery” (Gaudete in Domino, I, 1975). We have both “wondering childhood” and “serene old age” present in this parish, looking for truth and joy. In the Litany of Loreto, we call upon our Lady as the one who is the Seat of Wisdom, the one who helps us to find the truth, and immediately after, we call upon Her as the Cause of Our Joy. Living in the truth brings with it a joy, even if, many times, that joy an interior joy, a hidden joy.
Our Lord asks the crowds in the Gospel: What did you come to look at? Let us look for and find, a personal encounter with the Christ. The entrance antiphon for the Mass on this Gaudete Sunday cries out, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed the Lord is near”. In seeking truth, we are able to find joy, as we are attentive to the movements of our hearts. We patiently wait for the coming of Jesus Christ at the end of time, and at Christmas.
(Fr. Pawel Ratajczak, OMI, Dec. 11, 2022)