Doubt: Who Took the Wrong Path?
Year A – Advent – 3rd Sunday (Gaudete)
Matthew 11:2–11: “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”
The theme of the Third Sunday of Advent is always the coming of the Lord and the path he must take to reach us. All the readings speak of this abundantly and with different nuances. “The coming of the Lord is near!” James repeats in the second reading (Jas 5:7–10). The Word seeks to stir even the last sceptics, the undecided and the indifferent.
Today the liturgy invites us to lay aside penitential garments and to put on festive attire. It is the Sunday of joy: Gaudete, rejoice! If we read the first reading (Isa 35) with a simple heart, open to being consoled, we cannot remain indifferent to this prophecy of Isaiah. It presents us with a vision of reality that breathes joy, beauty, lightness and enthusiasm… A passage of Scripture where one ought to place a bookmark, to return to it in dark and sorrowful moments.
John’s doubt
On this third Sunday, John remains on the scene, but the context changes radically. He is no longer the free man crying out in the wilderness. He is in prison. King Herod (one of the three sons of Herod the Great who had divided the kingdom among themselves) has imprisoned the Prophet. He wants to control the Voice. It had become subversive, a threat to his power. The Voice is stifled and later silenced, but not tamed. It will remain free until the end!
But… a far more subtle danger presents itself for the Voice: doubt! In the silence of the prison, the echo of the “works of the Christ” reaches John — works very different from those he had expected. Jesus does not appear with an axe to cut down the tree, nor with a winnowing fork to clear his threshing floor (cf. last Sunday’s Gospel). John, the heir of Elijah, the prophet set ablaze by the fire of zeal, seems disavowed: neither the bad tree nor the chaff is thrown into the fire! The “day of vengeance” does not arrive! And doubt creeps in.
Who has taken the wrong path? Jesus, who has come by another way? Or John, the master builder, who misunderstood the instructions for preparing the way? It is a troubling and dramatic doubt. At stake is not only the meaning of John’s life and mission, but also the very identity of Yahweh!
“Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”
Strange words, even scandalous ones, of desperate seriousness, comments the well-known Trappist monk and writer Thomas Merton. Jesus replies to John’s messengers by listing his works:
“Go and tell John what you hear and see: the BLIND receive their sight, the LAME walk, the LEPERS are cleansed, the DEAF hear, the DEAD are raised, and the GOOD NEWS is proclaimed to the POOR!”
Six works! Why six and not seven, the number of perfection? One work is missing! Which will it be? The future of his mission was still open and therefore uncertain, and Jesus remains in expectation of the final Work of the Father. And even if he knew it, he could not reveal it to John: it would have plunged him into total bewilderment and darkness.
For the final Work will be the Cross, the defeat of the expected Messiah and the triumph of Love. It would have been too great a scandal even for the Prophet, “the greatest among those born of women”. Indeed, even for Jesus, “the least in the kingdom of heaven”, who came to take the last place, that of the Servant, it was not easy to accept: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me!” (Mt 26:39).
Our doubts
Doubt! It is the worm that can undermine the solidity of our faith. It must be said, however, that there are harmful doubts that paralyse us, and healthy doubts that spur us on to searching and growth. And all of them can coexist within our hearts.
There are those who have no doubts because they conform to the prevailing opinion conveyed by the media. Others have no doubts because they see the world in only two colours: black and white. They have clear and distinct ideas: on one side truth, good and the good people; on the other falsehood, evil and the bad — to be opposed, even fought, at times in the name of God.
Others doubt everything and everyone: a systematic doubt. They always have something to criticise. It is the attitude of those who consider themselves judges and spectators of the reality around them. It is a form of disengagement. Still others are blocked by paralysing doubt, unable to discern because of the complexity of situations, or because of indecision and fear of risk.
It would be worthwhile to ask ourselves whether we fall into one of these categories, for in them hope cannot take root.
But what is truly the doubt of the Baptist? Where does it come from? It is important to ask this. John expected a messiah who would come along the path of JUSTICE, a judge who would punish the wicked and reward the good. Jesus, however, comes by another road: the road of MERCY. John the Baptist himself was called to change his path, to be converted.
Could it be that we too are waiting for the messiah along the path of justice? One who would bring a bit of order into our world and into this society? One who would clearly show that “we are right”, that we are on the right side? If this is so, Advent, from a time of hope, will become a time of disappointment. This is why Thomas Merton affirms: “It is important to remember the profound and, in some way, anguished seriousness of Advent!”
The beatitude of our time
Jesus concludes his response to John with a beatitude:
“Blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me.”
It is the tenth beatitude found in the Gospel of Matthew. It may well be the beatitude of our times, in which the Christian sails against the current. I think of the cultural debate underway on certain ethical choices, or the intra-ecclesial debate on controversial issues. It is difficult to see clearly the contours of the problems and to glimpse solutions — not to mention the scandals.
It is a time when many are tempted to abandon the “Boat”, confused, wounded, disappointed, scandalised… Then comes that challenging question which Jesus addressed to his own when many followers left him after his discourse at Capernaum (Jn 6):
“Do you also wish to go away?”
Our response can only be that of Peter:
“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
P. Manuel João Pereira Correia, mccj
Fr. Manuel João, comboni missionary
Sunday Reflection
from the womb of my whale, ALS
Our cross is the pulpit of the Word
