Sunday Reflections

I am sure we can all understand when someone says they were ‘overwhelmed’ – that they experienced something more than they expected.  It could be meeting a person – like the Holy Father, visiting a place – like seeing Niagara Falls or the Sistine Chapel for the first time, seeing an object – like the Mona Lisa, or Michelangelo’s ‘David’, or tasting something – like my Chocolate Cherry Upside Down Cake.   However, the dictionary also recognizes the word ‘underwhelmed’, although perhaps we have not used it often.  I was underwhelmed when I walked into Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris for the first time in 2000.  Despite its beauty and grace on the outside, I found the inside cold and not very beautifully adorned.  All my life I had seen pictures of it and was really geared up for being ‘overwhelmed’, ‘blown away’, and left sadly ‘underwhelmed’.  I was expecting something completely different.

I thought of that when I first read the gospel of today (Matthew 11:2-11).  When I see the disciples of John the Baptist coming to Jesus and asking “Are you the one who is to come?” it appears that they are underwhelmed by him.  They expected the Messiah, the one who is to come, the one sent by God, to have certain qualities and characteristics that they did not see in Jesus.  Some, like Simon the Zealot, who would become His disciple, expected the Messiah to be a powerful leader who would bring freedom from the domination of the Romans.  Others, because of prophesies that he would be of King David’s line, thought He would have a royal birth and royal powers.   A carpenter from Nazareth, born in a stable in Bethlehem, an itinerant preacher who walked around Galilee preaching and healing. was not exactly what they expected.  He did not ‘fit the bill’.  Their expectations were not satisfied by His lack of Messianic traits, as they perceived them.  In our human condition, looks can be deceiving.

However, Jesus does reveal Himself to the disciples of John the Baptist by indicating the Messianic prophecies that He did fulfill:  “the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them”. 

Then Jesus also speaks of John the Baptist.  There, too, it appears that the people were ‘underwhelmed’.  He was not “dressed in fine clothing” and to be found “in royal palaces”.  He was a prophet in line with the other prophets of God – speaking for God to the people and calling them back.  He finishes by indicating that they should be ‘overwhelmed’ by God’s presence, as “among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist”.  In our human condition, looks can be deceiving.

In our First Reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (35:1-6a, 10) God speaks of new beginnings – rich vegetation in the parched land, against all odds.  As well, the weak will be made strong.  Then God reveals some of the signs of the coming of the Messiah, mirrored in Jesus’ words in the gospel – these reversals of nature by the power of God – the blind who see, the deaf who hear, the lame who leap, and the mute who sing.

Our Second Reading, from the Letter of Saint James (5:7-10) encourages us to be patient.   He uses the analogy of the farmer waiting for “the precious fruit of the earth”.  So, we are to be patient for the coming of the Lord. 

This Third Sunday of Advent is called ‘Gaudate’ Sunday, the Sunday of ‘rejoicing’.  The coming of the Lord draws near!  We are to be hopeful and patient, watching and waiting for his arrival.  Our pink candle of the Advent wreath show us that something different is happening.  We should not lose heart in this watching and waiting, knowing that God is faithful and true and that His Holy One, His Messiah, the ‘one who is to come’, will soon be among us.  He is Jesus the Lord, and we are preparing to celebrate His birth.

If we truly understand and believe in what is happening we will be ‘overwhelmed’ by the coming of the Lord.  Our watching and waiting will be fulfilled by his coming.  We will truly rejoice to know that the promise of God has been fulfilled.  If we fail to understand and believe in what is happening it is only logical that we will be ‘underwhelmed’ and wonder “What is all the fuss about?”, or “So what?”

Let us not lose heart in our watching and waiting, but let us go about ‘rejoicing’ that Jesus has come – not only in time, but into our lives.  However, Jesus can come into our lives only to the extent that we permit Him to.  We can shut the door on Him.  We can open the door a crack and question and doubt.  Or, we can throw open the door and let Him in.  However, if and when we let Him in it must be on His terms, looking for Him and accepting Him as He is, not as we would like to imagine Him or craft Him to be according to our own likes and choices.  If we are doing that we will be ‘underwhelmed’ for sure, but if we open ourselves to Him He will challenge us to be more and to do more.  And, that will be ‘overwhelming’.  That will be knowing, loving and serving Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.