A Penitent Blogger
Joy and Doubt
The third Sunday of Advent is Gaudete Sunday: a celebration of joyful anticipation in the middle of our spiritual preparations for Christmas.
The first reading (Isaiah 35:1-6a,10) is clearly in sync with this joyful theme, but the Gospel (Matthew 11:2-11) seems to be about John the Baptist and what might seem to be doubts on his part (“Are you the one who is to come or should we look for another?”)
As we know well from Scripture and from history (even to the present day example of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta), even the most saintly people are not necessarily free from doubt, although in this case, the question John sent through his disciples may have been really because of their doubts rather than any his own.
Our Lord’s answer connects his actions with the prophecies of old, including ones in today’s first reading, demonstrating himself to be the fulfillment of these messianic prophecies.
John’s disciples knew of Jesus’ works (they had doubtlessly been the ones to tell John of them) and they certainly knew of the ancient prophecies, so why could they not connect the two? Why did they doubt?
It is not enough to say that they simply had not been given the grace of faith.
At the heart of the doubt experienced by John’s disciples were mistaken and misleading expectations: their expectations were that the Messiah would be a warrior king who would drive out the Roman occupation, purge the nation of evildoers, and establish an earthly paradise for righteous people like themselves.
None of that was happening with Jesus and so they doubted.
Indeed, incorrect expectations can also be found at the heart of many (if not all) of our doubts and crises of faith: expectations based on human desires and human imagination rather than divine truth.
We need to be careful not to let our human expectations, conscious and unconscious, get in the way of God’s gifts of faith and hope.
In the midst of the ups and downs of life, we must exercise patience (as we hear in today’s second reading – James 5:7-10) as well as discernment, praying always that God will give us these graces and thereby draw us closer to himself.
As St. Paul says in Colossians 1:11-12:
May you be strengthened with all power,
according to his glorious might,
for all endurance
and patience with joy,
giving thanks to the Father,
who has qualified us to share in the inheritance
of the saints in light.
The first reading (Isaiah 35:1-6a,10) is clearly in sync with this joyful theme, but the Gospel (Matthew 11:2-11) seems to be about John the Baptist and what might seem to be doubts on his part (“Are you the one who is to come or should we look for another?”)
As we know well from Scripture and from history (even to the present day example of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta), even the most saintly people are not necessarily free from doubt, although in this case, the question John sent through his disciples may have been really because of their doubts rather than any his own.
Our Lord’s answer connects his actions with the prophecies of old, including ones in today’s first reading, demonstrating himself to be the fulfillment of these messianic prophecies.
John’s disciples knew of Jesus’ works (they had doubtlessly been the ones to tell John of them) and they certainly knew of the ancient prophecies, so why could they not connect the two? Why did they doubt?
It is not enough to say that they simply had not been given the grace of faith.
At the heart of the doubt experienced by John’s disciples were mistaken and misleading expectations: their expectations were that the Messiah would be a warrior king who would drive out the Roman occupation, purge the nation of evildoers, and establish an earthly paradise for righteous people like themselves.
None of that was happening with Jesus and so they doubted.
Indeed, incorrect expectations can also be found at the heart of many (if not all) of our doubts and crises of faith: expectations based on human desires and human imagination rather than divine truth.
We need to be careful not to let our human expectations, conscious and unconscious, get in the way of God’s gifts of faith and hope.
In the midst of the ups and downs of life, we must exercise patience (as we hear in today’s second reading – James 5:7-10) as well as discernment, praying always that God will give us these graces and thereby draw us closer to himself.
As St. Paul says in Colossians 1:11-12:
May you be strengthened with all power,
according to his glorious might,
for all endurance
and patience with joy,
giving thanks to the Father,
who has qualified us to share in the inheritance
of the saints in light.
posted by Penitens | 10:22 AM
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