Homily for the Third Sunday of Advent, Year A

Something Substantial Is Happening In Jesus Of Nazareth

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Third Sunday of Advent, Year A

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, December 11, 2022

Upon his emergence on the public scene, John the Baptist announces and points to Jesus as the long expected Messiah. He addresses Jesus as “the one mightier than I.” He seems pretty clear in his proclamation regarding Jesus. But in our Gospel today, John  appears confused about the identity of Jesus. What changed? John is in prison at this time. He has been arrested by Herod Antipas for opposing Herod’s marriage to his brother’s wife, Herodias. John’s public ministry has ended and he is within a few days or weeks to his execution. Evidently, John is receiving reports of Jesus’ own ministry from the prison. We can speculate that perhaps Jesus wasn’t exactly what John expected him to be. While John was a preacher of fire and brimstone, Jesus had a different style and approach. So, John sends his disciples to Jesus with a puzzling question: “Are you the one who is to come or should we look for another?” What is interesting is not so much the question, but the answer that Jesus gives: “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.” From that very moment to the present day, when the question comes up: “Is Jesus the Messiah? This is the answer always given. So, if you are asked if Jesus is the Messiah, this is still the right answer to give. 

Notice that the Lord’s answer to John the Baptist is concrete, and not a compendium of abstractions. It means that in Jesus of Nazareth something concretely huge is happening. There is a major difference between Jesus and people who are simply Gurus and spiritual teachers. Granted that Jesus is also a spiritual teacher, but he is like no other. There was and is none like him. Something substantial is happening in Jesus. And what is happening is exactly what prophet Isaiah said would happen when the Messiah comes, namely, healing and uniting together God’s creation. Sadly, for centuries, a lot of people including some theologians had tried to deny the miracles of Jesus. They said the stories of Jesus’ miracles in the Gospels are simply made up. They advocated for the elimination of all the Gospel passages that talked about the supernatural events in the life and ministry of Jesus. But any attempt to do that will leave us with just a few pages of the Gospel. Why? Because the witness of Jesus as a healer and a miracle-worker is littered throughout the Gospels. Jesus was a great preacher with a difference. Aside from his transformative preaching, he also worked miracles. In any town he visited, innumerable miracles accompanied his great sermons. It is so right to say that his teaching was taken more seriously precisely because of his healing. That’s why people came to listen to him. People saw him as a remarkable figure. 

But how come Jesus didn’t cure every afflicted person? With all the infinite power that Jesus possesses, how come he didn’t heal everyone of every disease? The right answer is that we don’t know. What we know clearly is that in Jesus’ ministry, something substantially concrete is happening; the kingdom of God has finally arrived and is making its way in human history and experience. Additionally, we also know that the Church, which is the mystical body of Christ, is continuing to be the means by which the Kingdom of God breaks into the world; the means by which the healing power of God comes into this world. Some of our great saints were healers. Up till this present day, the Church’s healing ministry still exists. And before a holy man or woman is canonized, miracles must follow. Prayers and petitions made through them must be accompanied by verifiable miracles of healing. Throughout my priestly ministry, I have heard and seen some priests and lay faithfuls who have the charism of healing. In the life of the Church, there are authentic healers who continue Jesus’ work of uniting creation together. Furthermore, in every Catholic hospital and clinics, people are effecting healing in the name of Jesus.  

Beloved in Christ, in the list of things that Jesus told John’s disciples he was doing, the last is “the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.” Who are the poor? All of us! What makes us poor? Sin! God is the Source of grace and life; so, all of us are poor inasmuch as we wander away from him via sin. What good news is being proclaimed to us? Forgiveness of sin! At the heart of Jesus’ work is the forgiveness of sin. To the paralyzed man, Jesus says, “As for you, your sins are forgiven.” To John’s disciples Jesus said, “the blind regains their sight.” Jesus healed people of physical blindness, but blindness is also a classical biblical image of sin. Estranged from God, we wander in the dark, and lose our way. So, the forgiveness of our sins is a kind of light. It shows us the path and we know where to walk. Next, Jesus says “the lame walk.” Did Jesus physically cure lame people? Yes! But we can also view sin as a kind of paralysis. We are meant to walk towards God, but we don’t always do so. We are meant to make progress, but we are paralyzed. By freeing us of sin, we are able to walk again. We also hear that lepers are cleansed. Did Jesus really cure lepers of leprosy? Yes indeed! But leprosy in the Bible is always used as a symbol of sin. It compromises us, weakens us, and eventually kills us. So, with our sin forgiven, we are cleansed spiritually just as a leper is cleansed physically. Jesus also says, “the deaf hear.” Did Jesus cure deaf people of their deafness? Absolutely yes! But in our sin, it is as if we are spiritually deaf. We are unaware of the suffering and cry of those around us; we refuse to hear the voice of God. Finally, Jesus says, “the dead are raised.” Did he raise the dead physically? Yes! He raised Lazarus, the daughter of Jairus and the only son of the widow of Nain. But the ultimate symbol of sin in the Bible is death. Sin is nothing but spiritual death. Sin eats away our vitality until we succumb. But here now is the great good news: in the life and ministry of Jesus, through his death and resurrection, Jesus deals definitively and decisively with sin which is the greatest suffering that we have. More to it, through the ministry of the Church, Jesus continues to forgive us and heal us today just as he did during his public ministry. In this Advent season, as Christmas approaches, present your infirmities and weakness to the Divine Physician, Jesus. Present your blindness, your deafness, your lameness, your spiritual death before him and ask for his healing. 

May God bless you!