December 13, 2013
The following is a homily for the third Sunday in Advent, Dec. 15.
When the explanations started coming for the Metro North train crash two weeks ago in the Bronx, one of the theories was “road hypnosis.” Staring down the rails for long stretches, our eyes begin to not see what is in front of them. We get hypnotized, brought into another world. Of course, almost all of us drivers have felt the same thing on the NY Thruway, or route 81 north of Binghamton. Our eyes lose focus, we don’t see even though they are wide open. Throw in a Bluetooth phone conversation or beeps from texts, and it’s even harder to focus to see.
One of Isaiah’s signs of the coming of God’s coming in the first reading is that the blind will come to see. This raises for us a basic question: how well do we see? Are the blind the only blind ones? Are all of us somewhat blind? I have a good friend who, after years of trying to see his golf shot – he hit it far longer than me – finally had his cataract operation. “I can’t believe how much I was missing,” he said. “Colors, shapes, depth.”
We are somewhat shocked at the Gospel opening today. John the Baptist, the one who announces Jesus, is now imprisoned. From prison, he sends messages to Jesus: Are you the one we awaited or is someone else to come? We ask: wait a minute, John: you are the prophet, the seer, you are the forerunner to Jesus. Why are you asking this question? But a key truth comes from John’s question: We always have to come to know Jesus more. We never have completely seen, acknowledged or accepted Jesus Christ. There is always more to see, to encounter.
Jesus responds by pointing out his deeds – the very things that Isaiah talked about are the very heart of Jesus ministry. The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear and even the dead are raised. Now we need to be careful here, because we might want to read Jesus as primarily a physician or social worker. Jesus surely wants to heal people, and bring them into unity and peace. But he does this as a sign of something much greater – what God is doing one way or another for all the world, as signs of the Kingdom of God breaking out in our midst. And what Jesus did, the Spirit continues in us, in his church, in people who are committed to his mission and vision.
Advent gives us an opportunity to pay attention to what we see and what we can see more deeply. As a time of beginnings, it calls us to start again, to renew our spiritual lives, to see more clearly, to get rid of our cataracts, to get out of our Christian hypnosis, and to encounter Jesus through his Spirit once again.