This beautiful season of preparation teaches us how to combine two dispositions that balance each other. On one hand, we are filled with joyful anticipation, for “the coming of the Lord is at hand.” On the other hand, we wait in patience, for we do not know when the Lord will come and save us. If in our eagerness to celebrate we cannot endure waiting any longer, we become anxious and impatient. Then we may act before the Lord reveals his will. We can be like runners who “jump the gun” and take off running before the race even starts. We can also fall into the opposite error and be so “patient” that we become complacent and give up hope. When it seems that the Lord is doing nothing, and we are here suffering in the darkness, we forget the joy that is a natural fruit of faith and begin to compensate ourselves with worldly pleasures.
In Advent, we both rejoice and wait. Our great joy sustains our patience, and our great hope strengthens our joy. Today’s Liturgy is particularly valuable in forming us in this Advent spirit. The prophecy of Isaiah is a message full of joyful hope. Isaiah proclaims that God is coming to save us. “Be strong, fear not! / Here is your God, / he comes with vindication; / with divine recompense / he comes to save you.” The knowledge that he is coming already fills us with joy. We look forward to the day when we will enter the Lord’s presence singing and “crowned with everlasting joy.” Then we will “meet with joy and gladness, / sorrow and mourning will flee.”
The day when there will be no more sorrow is certainly coming, and we rejoice even to hear its arrival being announced, but it is not yet here. Even though Jesus has already come into the world and saved us, the glory of his reign is still hidden. Often we can identify more readily with John the Baptist in prison than with the saints in glory. Suffering wears down our patience; we wonder whatever happened to the joy we are expecting.
We can easily imagine the mixed emotions that John must have felt while he was confined to the dungeon of King Herod. Like the great prophets before him, John had announced the word of God, and now he is suffering for having announced it. He does not regret his fidelity. He is not “a reed swayed by the wind,” a man who changes his position according to whatever suits him at the moment. He has no desire to go about “dressed in fine clothing.” Still, John wonders when God will fulfill his promise. How long before the darkness is dispelled by the dawn? When he hears about all the works that Jesus has been doing, his hope is stirred anew. John already knows who Jesus is, and he has pointed him out to everyone. When he sends his disciples to investigate, it is very likely that he has seen their discouragement and wants them to have a personal encounter with Jesus, the very Lamb of God who has come to take away the sins of the world.
Jesus’ answer – his mention of the healing of the blind, the lame, and the deaf – echoes what Isaiah had prophesied some seven centuries earlier. In other words, Jesus invites the disciples of John to recognize the abundant evidence that the prophecy is now coming to its fulfillment. This is the “good news” that is being proclaimed to the poor: the Messiah has come – it is Jesus himself! The Lord then adds, “Blessed is the one who takes no offence at me.” He is inviting us to welcome his mission of salvation, not to stumble over the contradiction of the Cross. To reject Jesus, whether because he is not what we expect or because he does not instantly relieve us of all suffering, is to miss the blessing he offers us. John does not stumble. He does not complain that the Messiah is freeing others from all sorts of afflictions but leaving him confined to prison. He remains faithful unto death, showing us how to remain strong in faith and hope, even in the darkest moments of our lives.
In the second reading, St. James tells us to take the prophets – the greatest of whom is John the Baptist – as our models in suffering hardships with patience. While the first reading emphasizes joy, James emphasizes patience. When we are patient, we discover a deeper joy. We are to be like the farmer, who understands that he must be patient while he “waits for the precious fruit of the earth.” We live our whole Christian life between planting time and harvest time. The life of God has already been planted in our hearts. The harvest we await is more precious than any earthly treasure, and worth enduring any trial, even a lifetime of suffering in prison. Relying on the gift of faith, we are neither impatient and impulsive, nor unprepared and self-satisfied. With deep interior joy, we strive to follow James’ wise counsel: “Make your hearts firm, because the coming of the Lord is at hand.”
In what ways am I tempted to act before I know the will of God? What helps me grow in patience and trust? How is John the Baptist an example for me when I face my darkest moments?
Excerpt from The Anawim Way, Volume 22, no. 1. More information about The Anawim Way may be found here.