3rd Sunday of Advent A 14 December 2025 Keeping faith
Happy is the man who does not lose faith in Me (Mt 11,6), says Our Lord, on referring to John the Baptist.
He was calling on history up to that point to remind His listeners (and us) the sort of service God had been providing.
He had put the world in place, created humanity, set everything to work as it should.
He made allowance for human rebellion against His creative will, and to help further He took on human nature; then dying for us, then rising to new life, then (still to happen) a glorious return to reward those who ‘have not lost faith in Him’.
Our job is to stay faithful, and one way we can do that is to have a lively and imminent sense of history; to remind ourselves daily of the wonders of God, and thus to keep our faith at an active level.
We do not treat the stories in the Bible as ‘long ago and far away’ and therefore out of our concern. Just because a story is old does not necessarily make it any less true or any less relevant.
When God speaks, the word stays spoken. My word does not return to Me empty, says the Lord. (Is 55,11).
This is why we have Liturgy, and why we have biblical readings in the midst of our ceremonies – to call us back to truths which might at first appear too good to be true; but as we make them a part of our lives, they become enlightening to us.
When God delivered Israel from Egypt, for example, that might seem a long time ago to us, but it comes alive for us every year at Easter, and even every day, as the Mass is offered.
We retell these stories and we let them take hold on us. They remind us of the generosity of God and of His constancy. He does not grow tired or weak; nor does He forget His promises and overall purpose.
This is what Jesus is reminding the people of His time. Tell John what you have seen and heard, the lame walking, the blind seeing etc (Mt 11,4-5).
And you will see a lot more than that. Those things are just symbols by comparison with the plans still to be fulfilled.
Our beliefs are bold, but they are not pulled from thin air. They are based on historical events, and even more solidly on the impeccable nature of God Himself.
Truth itself speaks truly, or there’s nothing true (St Thomas Aquinas)
Specifically today, the Church invites us, not just to stronger faith, but a sense of the pure joy with which we can grow in that faith.
The redeemed shall return, with everlasting joy on their faces - in such a way as never to go back to the old ways and the wrong ways. (Zeph 3,20).
We are free from the slavery of sin and the degradation that goes with that.
We have been lifted to a higher level, because God has come down to our level, and takes us with Him as He returns to Heaven.
We have never seen a world without trouble, but we can easily see that if everyone suddenly started obeying Almighty God the world would set itself right very quickly.
We may not be able to imagine it but we can desire it.
So we rejoice, on this Sunday (Gaudete Sunday).
Tell John what you have seen and heard, and tell each other, and anyone who will listen!
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