II Sunday, Advent, 6/12/1620. [Mt. 11/3: “Are you he who is to come or are we to look for another?”
The Gospel passage Mt. 11/2-10 is divided into three parts: the enquiry by John’s disciples, Jesus’ response, Jesus’ comment about John.
1. Why did John send his disciples to enquire? One does not ask questions only to learn something one does not know; otherwise, the Divine Majesty would never have asked any question. God asked questions for three reasons: First, in order to lead the one questioned, confess his sins [Gn. 3/9, 13: Adam where are you? Eve what have you done? Instead of confessing his sin, the miserable man threw the blame on his wife. [Gn. 3/12]. Secondly, in order to enlighten and instruct – as he did in the case of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus [Lk. 24/15, 17, 25-27]. And thirdly, to provoke love, as in the case with Magdalene seeking Jesus at the Tomb [Mt. 16/1: Woman why are you weeping? Jn. 20/11-15: Woman whom are you seeking?]
Thus, after having preached about Jesus, John sent his disciples to gain a personal experience of Jesus from the Lord Himself. He wanted his disciples to move to the school of the Master Himself, so that they may personally be instructed by Jesus; and finally, so that they may detach themselves from him and turn to the Messiah.
2. Jesus’ response is simple: “Relate what you have heard and seen”, as if to teach us that it is one’s works and not one’s words that bear witness to what one’s identity. … If a religious is asked: ‘Who are you?’ and if she is seen to be exact and punctual in the observance of her rules, she can answer that she is truly a religious. In short, it is our works, whether, good or bad, that make us what we are; and it is by them that we are known to be what we are.
Self love besides being blind itself, also blinds the one in whom it dwells.
The human person has two natures: the concupiscible, which covets wealth, honours and pleasures, that makes a person avaricious; and the irasible nature that resents submission to reason leading to person to be troubled at the least contrariety. These to natures are like two legs. When they are not well regulated, they render a person lame. Our Lord came to cure the lame, to lead men to walk upright in the observance of His commandments. [12] “The lepers are cured”. Leprosy is a certain languour and tepidity in God’s service. People infected with this illness are like lizards, vile and despicable creatures, feeble and harmless; yet if they are provoked, even is ever so lightly, they will turn to snap at us. So too, spiritual lepers, who, in spite of the multitude of their sores are haughty and will turn to attack you if you seek to rebuke them ever so gently. Persons are infected with spiritual deafness when they remain complacent in their given situation and seek no improvement – through listening to the Word of God, reading books of devotion or accepting correction and direction. Such persons remain dead – refusing to move from sin to grace. It is only the poor who came to listen to Jesus – and so the response of Jesus to the John’s disciples: The poor have the Gospel preached to them.
Attach yourself to the Saviour’s Cross, meditate on it, and assume every mortification. The Cross is the only road to Heaven. There is none other.
What did you go out to see in the desert? Why have you entered religious life – religious life is nothing but a desert of sorts? [15] Not a reed shaken by the wind, but a firm rock, a man possessed of unshakable stability in the midst of all sorts of changing circumstances – as joyful in the winter of trouble as in the springtime of peace.
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