Third Sunday of Advent

Lectionary: 8



...this is the testimony of John. When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to him to ask him, "Who are you?"








Several questions follow the Jews' first question: "Are you the Christ? Are you Elijah? Are you the prophet? Who are you then?" They really don't know what to make of Saint John.
However, the Baptist is very sure of who he is, "I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, make straight the way of the Lord."
John's identity is more than a name; it is a mission and a place in the history of God's people.
Each morning I review a list of Catholic patients in the VA hospital. After ten years I am familiar with many of them; some I can recall with my notes; some, I have never met.
A few will be practicing Catholics, most are not. Of the latter, some remember they are -- or were -- Catholic. But for many the word means nothing; it was a handle imposed on them by someone else for no particular reason. They have no sense of themselves as prophets, missionaries or disciples of the Lord. They know nothing of membership or ownership toward a parish church. Sunday is just the first day of the week; Easter is not even that.
Advent invites us to remember who we are, where we come from and where we're going. First, we recall our history as the People of God, which begins with "old testament" memories of Abraham, Moses and David; and continues with the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
We are a historical people, so we cannot ignore two thousand significant years that link us to Jesus. There are Christians who, attempting to renew the Church, would simply dismiss everything that happened between the day he ascended into heaven and the day they were born. But they might more easily ignore their own evolving years of pubescence and adolescence including the really stupid thing we all do in our youth.
As a historical people we remember the fall of the Roman Empire, the development of Christendom, the Great Schism, the rise of Islam, the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Enlightenment. We remember the saints who appeared in every age to preach the ever ancient, ever new Gospel; and the Church Councils which meet the endless series of challenges.
We might be accused of clinging to a medieval religion but at least we know the medieval world was not preoccupied with dragons, sorcerers and damsels in distress; nor will we, in the future, have to fight Thor, Superman and the Green Giant. Cervantes buried all that nonsense with his Don Quixote. Our scriptures, rituals and history are anchored in reality, not in mythology.
When the Jews asked John the Baptist, "Who are you?" he drew his answer straight from the ancient traditions they should have known:

"I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, 'make straight the way of the Lord,'" as Isaiah the prophet said."

In his wonderful book The Sabbath, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel explained how the devout Jew is oriented in time by observing the Sabbath. It is not enough to know where we are; we must also know when we are; and that is squarely within God's Salvation History.