14 December 2025 – Third Sunday of Advent ‘A’
Is 35:1-6a, 10; Jas 5:7-10; Mt 11:2-11
H o m i l y
As we saw in last Sunday's Gospel, John the Baptist called his contemporaries to conversion. Spiritually nourished by the writings of the great prophets of Israel, he had announced the coming of divine wrath, the coming of a Messiah who would judge the nations, separate the good from the wicked, and exterminate the latter: ‘The axe is already laid to the root of the trees; every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.’
Now, just as John was announcing this Messiah, a certain Jesus came to be baptized among the crowd. John then had a clear revelation from the Holy Spirit that this Jesus was truly the Messiah, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. At the moment it was given to Him, this revelation seemed so clear, so obvious, that it seemed to Him to express an absolute truth. But now John, who had continued to fulfil his role as prophet with courage, even rebuking Herod for his conduct, found himself in prison, and the Messiah did nothing to free His prophet. What is more, this Messiah is not acting as John had predicted and announced. He does not condemn, He does not judge. He is content to announce the Kingdom of His Father. Is he really the Messiah? Should we wait for another who will finally bring order to society and to the People of God by exterminating sinners? John therefore sent his disciples to ask Jesus, ‘Are you truly the one who is to come—the one I have announced—or should we wait for another?’
One might wonder whether John is really going through a period of doubt and uncertainty or whether he simply wants his disciples to become Jesus' disciples. The Gospel text does not allow us to give a definite answer to this question. In reality, the answer is not important, because what is at the heart of this story is not John with his question but Jesus with His answer.
This is one of the most beautiful passages in the Gospel. The real question is this: ‘When God enters human history, what are the authentic signs of His action? If the Kingdom of God has come, what is its authentic manifestation?’
In Jesus' time, many religious manifestations could be considered signs of the presence of God's kingdom: there was the Temple; above all, there was the Law, sacrifices, official worship, prayers, fasting, Sabbath precepts, etc.
What is remarkable is that Jesus, in his response, does not mention any of these traditional signs of God's presence, but rather offers as manifestations of the kingdom facts that apparently have no religious dimension, secular events that are not mentioned in the books of theology.
Let us first consider carefully Jesus' first words: "Go and tell John what you hear and see." What do they hear and see? That people are freed from old forms of bondage and that their human dignity is restored. The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.
Where, then, is the kingdom? One must be blind not to see it. When a person moves from a less human condition to a more human one, that is where God's action is manifested, that is where His kingdom is found. Everything else is literature. ‘What you hear and see’, says Jesus. If I want to know what kind of Christian I am, I must first ask myself not what words I say, but whether my actions help the people around me or those I come into contact with to gradually and increasingly free themselves from any lack of freedom, whether internal or external – from any form of oppression.
As Christians, that is, as followers of Christ, we are called to proclaim the good news. No news is true unless it reports a real fact. News that does not correspond to a fact is a lie. We have a responsibility to make the Kingdom of God present in today's world, wherever we are. If we proclaim His presence in words without realizing it in our actions, we are liars. This is what Jesus means when he adds: ‘Blessed is he who is not scandalized by me’.
There is something tragic about the mission and destiny of John the Baptist. He was the greatest of the prophets, he announced the coming of the Messiah, he recognized Him when He came, he sent his own disciples to Him, he was faithful until death to his mission of calling all people to conversion. And yet he did not perceive the essence of what Jesus' mission would be. We can learn many lessons from this. First, that no prophet, however authentic, can claim to possess the whole truth; none can claim that we should follow him blindly. As far as we are concerned personally, each one of us, however sure we may be of our faith and perhaps of our spiritual or even mystical experiences, however authentic these may be, there will always be whole areas of Truth that will escape us as long as we are still in this life. Like John the Baptist, we must have the courage to ‘doubt’ and to question Jesus.
At the level of peoples and humanity as a whole, as well as at the level of each individual, all forms of fanaticism are generated by an excessive conviction of possessing the truth or being in the right. Humanity is currently experiencing a dramatic period in its history, with an orgy of violence generated by such fanaticisms which, although opposed, feed off each other. Let us pray to the Prince of Peace to stop our poor humanity from continuing on the suicidal path it has adopted and to guide it onto the path of conversion, dialogue and forgiveness.
Armand VEILLEUX