December 11
Third Sunday of Advent
“Lord, come and save us.”
Reflection
On this Gaudete Sunday, we recognize just how close we are to the gift of Christ. Our recognition of this relationship with Christ should cause us great rejoicing, thus the word, gaudete which means rejoice. The first two weeks of Advent have seen us preparing to recognize the coming of the Christ Child, the innocent one we celebrate on Christmas, but also looking forward to the second coming of Christ, where those who are faithful to the teachings of Christ will be rewarded with everlasting life.
Today, in our gospel reading, we hear John the Baptist, who was in prison, send his disciples to Jesus with one very important question, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” Jesus’ reply to John’s disciples was, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.”
This is quite an answer. We could assume that there would be nothing else that the disciples or John could possibly want as proof of the power of Jesus. Do we accept the miracles that Jesus has accomplished for the human race? If we do accept all that Jesus says and does, then we definitely can say that we rejoice this weekend because Jesus is so close to us, both as a newborn child as well as a salvific judge. The question for each of us to ask is do we accept all that Jesus has done for us, or do we still expect more.
Let us rejoice today in the fact that Jesus cares so much for the human race that he was willing to enter our world to save us and is still here, looking to save all who take no offense at him.
Peace,
Fr. John
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