Third Sunday in Advent AD 2023
Often, other people and even God are seen as stopgaps: we pay attention to them when we need them, and we act as if they exist only to benefit us. In a sense, this is natural: without God we would not exist, and without other people it would be difficult – if not completely impossible – for us to live. Even St. Augustine says: “For when I seek Thee, my God, I seek a happy life. I will seek Thee, that my soul may live. For my body lives by my soul; and my soul by Thee" and "Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it rests in Thee".
However, God is not a stopgap, but rather a gap-opener – often in a rather painful way. Just as He has done time and time again through His prophets, who draw people’s attention to what they would rather not think about.
Jesus asked the Jews, speaking about John the Baptist: “What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses.”
Probably many of them had gone to John the Baptist because their hearts were restless, there was a hole in their souls, and they were looking for help, encouragement, reconciliation, peace, maybe even the meaning of life. But Jesus’ words also show that among them there were those who, on the one hand, were looking for justification for their life so far, and on the other hand, simply for some kind of sensation.
John the Baptist was not a stopgap. He was a prophet who came to announce that the fullness of the time is there and the Lord wll come. The preaching of John the Baptist was quite harsh: “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”
Yes, God has sent His only-begotten Son to heal the wounds of our hearts. But first He wants us to admit the existence of these wounds and seek true repentance. When He comes again, He “will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God”.