“JESUS PREACHES THE GOSPEL TO YOU”
Saint Matthew 11: 2-10
Gaudete: 13 December Anno Domini 2015
Father Jay Watson SSP
Today is Gaudete—the Third Sunday of Advent for that part of His Church that is still guarded and preserved by His Truth. His Church is typified and best represented by His Blessed Mother, the Virgin of Nazareth who is sung about in the famous carol/chant Gaudete. And though she is not present visibly, at least not directly recorded by Matthew, she is always in the background for everything The Christ does is for His Holy Church. And, she is, after all, a kinswoman to Saint John the Baptist—maybe the closest living relative if Saints Elisabeth and Zacharias were that much older than the teen-Virgin at the time of the two most blessed pregnancies recorded in Saint Luke’s Visitation account.
Sin which infects all of you—hence your status as sinners—causes self-justification and the blaming of others. You blame your spouse, blame your parents, blame your children, your sister, and your brother; blame your government, neighbors, pastor, doctor, and candlestick maker. And along with blame and attack; along with gossip and worst-construction, you always pull people down. You “reason” that if you’re all in the sewage than at least no one is better than you. You attack St. Mary or, as many do in this morning’s text you begin doubting John’s courage and indomitable strength under harsh imprisonment and mistreatment.
“Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ…” Of course John “heard” for his ears had been opened and his tongue had been loosed! John had been sent by God The Holy Ghost to anoint Jesus as The Christ of God in the Jordan. John believed God as an adult even as he had believed God, was given faith by Grace, to believe that Jesus was God, when he “leaped for joy” in the womb of his own mother when the en-wombed Jesus came into the room…when The Virgin sang her Magnificat—The Gospel most pure.
John always believed. If your sinful jealousy wants to put John on your level, doubting, weak faith, fear of apostatizing in time of severe persecution, or just plain Protestant ‘Muricanism, hear Christ: “What did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft raiment?” Do you desire successful leaders with vision, people-skills and charisma…or just always accommodating punching bags that will tickle your ears and do things your way? If John had been one of those—a 1st century Episcopalian or a touchy-feely Lutheran, Herod would have made him Palace Chaplin. Hear The God/Man and believe: “He is more than ‘a’ Prophet…He is, of whom it is written, Who I wrote about through my others, MY Messenger…My angel…My Brother, Apostle, and Body…and He has prepared the way before all of you!”
John heard in-utero The Word…and believed. John heard The Word from the catechesis he received from the words of his dutiful and believing parents. John heard The Word as he studied sacred scripture. John obeyed the Paraclete and then got to see the Spirit descend “like a dove.” John was defiant, bold, resolute, and confessing all the way until Herod’s satanic blade severed John’s head thus silencing the Call—The Confession…temporarily.
But this day John’s witness, His martyrdom preaches forth and Jesus is HERE. Behold The Lamb of God Who taketh away the sin of the world!
What you “want” for Christmas (in your sinful AD/HD condition—you’ve already blown past Adventide) may or may not be received. But what The God/Man desires for you, for John, gives you, is something so much incredibly better. Follow John’s pointing; follow and listen to John’s message. What do you hear and see?
“The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them.”
“This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” [Luke 4. 21b]
In the Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
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