Tuesday in the Fourth Week of Advent, December 21, 2021

Song of Songs 2:8-14

Hark! my lover–here he comes springing across the mountains, leaping across the hills. My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag. Here he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattices. My lover speaks; he says to me, “Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one, and come! “For see, the winter is past, the rains are over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of pruning the vines has come, and the song of the dove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance. Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one, and come!  O my dove in the clefts of the rock, in the secret recesses of the cliff, Let me see you, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and you are lovely.” 

The Song of Songs, from which the first reading of today’s Mass is taken, celebrates the love of husband and wife, on one level, and the love of Christ and his Church, on another.  It can also be understood as the love between Christ and the soul.  Although a brief book, its beauty inspired many commentaries from the Fathers through the medieval writers.  St. Bernard’s  commentary on the book comes readily to mind.  The book itself is a collection of love poems the lines of which are assigned at times to the Bride, the Groom, and a Chorus.  The verses used for today’s first reading are spoken by the Bride and are about her Groom.

“Hark! my lover–here he comes springing across the mountains, leaping across the hills.”  The Groom here is the Son of God who joins himself to a human nature in the incarnation.  An enormous gulf separates God and man, signified here by the valleys between the mountains and hills which the Groom springs across.  He comes “springing”, exultantly, rejoicing to come down from heaven to save his people.  In more personal terms, it is the coming of God to meet a loving, faithful soul in prayer.  He envelopes that soul in grace and speaks to her in her most inmost recesses.  His voice is a whisper but his word is fire.

“My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag.”  Her Groom is strong and sure-footed; fearless and eager to bound about.  Simply to gaze upon him fills the beholder with these characteristics too.  The Lord who comes to earth fears no one and is fully capable for the salvation of his Bride.  This image also signifies the directness of the Lord’s coming to the faithful soul in prayer.

“Here he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattices.” We see how considerate the Lord is, not overwhelming his people by coming before their Prophets have completed their work and they themselves have grown in their expectation.  We also see how the Groom waits for his Bride, the faithful soul. to be prepared for him.  She adorns herself with her virtues and good works so as to be most pleasing to her Groom.  

“Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one, and come!”  The Lord speaks to his Church and urges her to join him.  We hear of the Bride’s beauty in his own words: she is his “dove” and his “beautiful one”.  She is as a dove because her members have washed their robes white in his Blood and, lightened by her innocence, she can fly up to meet her Groom in the heavens.  “My dove” and “my beautiful one” also signify the faithful soul who is wrapped in her baptismal garment, which is also her wedding dress.  At the coming of the Lord to her in prayer she is joined to him in rapture. 

“For see, the winter is past, the rains are over and gone.”  The long ages of waiting for redemption are over.  The world has yearned for its Savior since Adam and Eve fatefully ate the fruit forbidden to them.  Now the darkness of the reign of death has cleared.  The Daystar, Jesus Christ, has shines upon the earth.  For the faithful soul, these words are a signal that her perseverance in the world is rewarded by her divine Visitor.  She has endured the pains and labors necessary to live and to make a living.  She has endured the rude behavior of those around her and striven to be kind and charitable to all.  Now, in her time of prayer, she forgets all in the sweet embrace of her Beloved.

“The flowers appear on the earth, the time of pruning the vines has come, and the song of the dove is heard in our land.”  The presence of the Son of God on the earth has enlivened his people.  They flower with faith and good works.  The vines must also be pruned, that is, it is a time of discipline and of doing penance so that his people may grow yet stronger in their faith so as to endure and triumph through persecution.  For the faithful soul, the “flowers” signify graces received from God in prayer, while the “pruning” signifies the poverty, chastity and obedience which she embraces so that she might belong to God alone.  The “song of the dove” is both the hymn of praise arising from the Church and from the heart of the faithful Christian.  

“The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance.”  Nourished by the rays of the Lord’s glory, his teaching, and his example, and watered with his Blood, the saints on earth put forth their “figs”, their own good works as well as the converts they have made.  The “fragrance” of the vine comes from the rich grape leaves.  As the dove sings its song, so the vine puts forth its fragrance, showing that each saint gives glory to God in his or her way.  We also see the vibrant life of God filling the faithful soul and causing her to rejoice in intimacy with him.

“Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one, and come!”  The Groom calls again, just as he called on the people in Galilee and Judea: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is approaching!”  The faithful soul hears and treasures this call of the Lord throughout life.  It is a call to prayer, to Mass, to virtue, and to eternal life with the Groom in heaven.  “O my dove in the clefts of the rock, in the secret recesses of the cliff, Let me see you, let me hear your voice.”  Even the soul who thirsts most avidly for God cannot know the yearning of God for that soul.  So greatly does the Groom desire his Church to be with him in heaven that he gladly dies for her.  His giving up his life was not an impulsive act but one willed from before creation.  For the soul, the Lord of all expresses his eagerness to hear what she has to say to him, even though he knows better than she does what she is going to say.  He treasures her words, the movement of her lips as she forms them, and the breath that brings them forth.  Each of her words is precious to him and speaks of her love for him.  “Your voice is sweet, and you are lovely.”  The voice of the Church is sweet and lovely with its harmonies in which the individual tones of the saints come together.  No dissonance disturbs it.  The loveliness of the Bride is enhanced by the reflection of the Groom’s own holiness, which he loans to those who love him.  The Bride, the Church, rejoices in his love and looks forward to the day when she will know it’s fullness in heaven.  The faithful soul knows herself to be loved by Almighty God and can hardly speak in her ecstasy, but she knows that in his love for her, he knows her love for him.

 Monday in the Fourth Week of Advent, December 20, 2021

Luke 1:26-38

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”  But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.”  Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

The following link and information will take anyone interested to the live St. Matthew’s Gospel Bible Study tonight at 8:00 PM eastern time, 7:00 PM central time.  We are looking at the Sermon on the Mount.

https://us05web.zoom.us/j/3806645258?pwd=MUNuU0ZxNFM3NnpiclZCcFF6SFhyQT09

Meeting ID: 380 664 5258

Passcode: 140026

“The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin.”  Gabriel and the other angels had been created by God before the creation of the world.  They possessed keen intellects capable of fully understanding at a glance, and a will that could not be changed, once formed, or broken.  They had been put to a test after their creation.  We do not know the nature of this test although some theologians have posed theories.  Perhaps it could be compared to the subsequent test of Adam and Eve in the Garden.  As a result of the test, a certain number of angels rebelled against God.  As many as a third may have rebelled (cf. Revelation 12, 4).  These were cast out of the heaven God had created for them by Gabriel and the other angels who remained loyal to God.  These loyal angels then ascended into the highest realm of heaven to gaze upon the living God face to face.  Gabriel and the others looked on when God created the earth and then human beings.  They saw the humans, endowed with far lesser intellect and will than their own, fall prey to the enticements of the evil angels, but then heard God promise a Redeemer for them.

Through the ages, Gabriel watched the human race flounder about in its self-imposed darkness.  He also performed missions for God to help its members.  He prayed for the coming of their Redeemer.  And at a certain point, God chose him to bring the news of that Redeemer’s forerunner to the human who would be his father.  When that man doubted, Gabriel struck him deaf and dumb as a sign before returning to heaven.  And then Gabriel was assigned the greatest of his missions: to announce to a Virgin that she would be the Mother of the promised Redeemer.  Mary was unlike any human he had seen before since the creation of Eve, and she was even greater than Eve, for she had never sinned.  Her purity reminded him of his own, and as a result her intellect and will were stronger than any other human’s.  She would be a fit Mother of the Redeemer God was sending.  This Redeemer would be far more than a mortal man.  He would be the Son of God, whom Gabriel had worshipped in heaven with the Father and Holy Spirit from the dawn of his existence.  This Redemption struck Gabriel with awe.  Meditating on the feelings of Gabriel at the sacred moment of his announcement, a Greek poet would later write, “Gabriel was rapt in amazement as he beheld your virginity and the splendor of your purity, O Mother of God, and he cried out to you: “By what name shall I call you? I am bewildered; I am lost! I shall greet you as I was commanded to do: ‘Hail, O Woman full of Grace!’ '’

Let us, in prayer, see the awe of the angels at the Incarnation and Birth of the Lord Jesus, and ask them to help us feel something of it.

 The Fourth Sunday in Advent, December 19, 2021

Luke 1:39–45

Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”

“Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah.”  She would have set out for Judah after receiving the message from Gabriel that she was to bear God’s Son, and after telling Joseph her husband the news.  It might well be that Joseph escorted her to the town of Ein Karem, where Mary’s relative Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah lived.  If so, Joseph would have returned to Nazareth upon seeing Mary safely to their home.  The journey would have not been an easy one, for about a hundred miles separated Nazareth and Ein Karem and in that part of Judah the road went alongside of rocky hills riddled with niches and caves in which thieves and rebels would hide.  Making this journey “in haste” or “with diligence” indicates how driven Mary was to help her relative in her own pregnancy and also to learn from the priest Zechariah something of what God expected from her in the coming months and years.

“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb.”  Elizabeth’s own desire to do the will of God prepared both her and her unborn child to experience and receive the grace of Almighty God.  At this moment, the Church teaches, John the Baptist was freed from original sin so that he might be equipped even from his birth to prepare the world for the coming of its Maker.  The leaping of John the Baptist is also a sign of our reception of Holy Communion.  Our souls “leap” for joy and are filled with grace when we receive the Son of God in this Sacrament.  

“Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice.”  In the Old Testament, when it is said that someone cries out with “a loud voice” it is an expression of grief and lamentation.  In the new age of grace, those who love God cry out with rejoicing.  Elizabeth’s crying out is a sign of the rapture the saints feel upon entering heaven at the end of their lives on earth: if she was filled with joy in the presence of the Lord veiled within the womb of his holy Mother, how much greater shall be the exaltation of the saints when they see God face to face!  “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”  Elizabeth would have marveled for a few minutes after her son leapt in her womb, speechless in the presence of this mystery, and now she exclaims all that she can manage.  “And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”  Of all the titles bestowed upon the Blessed Virgin throughout the ages, the one which best describes who she is, is “Mother of God”.  Elizabeth’s cry also signifies how we should wonder at the unmerited gift of faith that we have received from Almighty God.  “For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.”  This saying brings to mind Psalm 114: “When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a barbarous people: Judea was made his sanctuary, Israel his dominion. The sea saw and fled: Jordan was turned back. The mountains skipped like rams, and the hills like the lambs of the flock.”  This Psalm commemorates the liberation of Israel from Pharaoh and Egypt.  John’s leap for joy signifies our liberation from sin and death.

“Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”  We stand in awe of the faith of the Blessed Virgin, a faith that enabled her to see God in all people and in all events.  Her faith, indeed, moves mountains as gazing upon it fills us with a burning desire to see God. 

 Saturday in the Third Week of Advent, December 18, 2021

Matthew 1:18-25

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit. Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.” When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home. He had no relations with her until she bore a son, and he named him Jesus.

This passage of the Scriptures reminds us of the necessity for understanding the customs of a given place and time in order to have clarity on the action in a historical narrative.  For instance, “When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together.”  The marriage itself took place in the bride’s home and consisted in the bride and her family consenting to be a man’s wife.  No vows were exchanged, no promises made, no processions took place.  After this, the groom would begin to make preparations for a wedding feast to be held at a later date in his house, at which point the bride and groom would take up house holding together.  And from the time of the marriage contract or agreement, the man and woman, now husband and wife, could engage in intimate relations.  St. Matthew writes carefully and clearly of the fact that Mary is married to Joseph at the time she conceives by the Holy Spirit.  To all outward appearances, as the Child grew within her, nothing was untoward.  No scandal arose on account of this.  The married woman Mary had become pregnant, and her friends and neighbors would have understood that Joseph was the father.

Joseph, however, was stunned by the news of her pregnancy — not that he suspected her of adultery, but because she had conceived by the Holy Spirit following an apparition on an angel.  Now, miraculous pregnancies were a part of Israel’s heritage but the mother had been either older or barren or both. And the mother always conceived in the natural way.  The husband played his natural part in the conception of the child.  In the case of Mary’s pregnancy, the angel had spoken to her alone and had not so much as mentioned him.  After Joseph received from Mary the news of her pregnancy with the Son of God, Joseph wondered what he was supposed to do.  What does the righteous man do, faced with this reality?  He wanted to support her and to take care of her as a Jewish man should take care of his wife, but the fact that he himself had received no instructions caused him to feel like an intruder on a sacred mystery.  One thing he would not do: blaze about the news that Mary had confided in him.  The angel had not enjoined secrecy on them, and the whole nation was anxious for the coming of the Messiah, but Joseph remained silent.  God himself would reveal this mystery in his own time.  But Joseph considered that he was not meant by God to be a part of it and so resolved to depart from her quietly so as not to inadvertently interfere with its fulfillment.  Since he and Mary had not set begun to live together, he could release her from her marriage to him and she could remain in the home of her parents.

It is at this point that the angel of God appears to him in a dream and declares to him that he is not to fear to take his wife into his home: he, as her husband, is to care for her and the Child.  Indeed, he is to give the Child his name, claiming him as his own.  The angel tells him this while acknowledging that the Child was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and so Joseph, the righteous man, sees his duty.  Upon waking, Joseph goes right to work, arranging for the feast that will welcome Mary into his home when she returned from staying with her kin in Judea.  

It is into this family dedicated to sacred duty and righteousness that the Lord Jesus is born.  While the Son of God will preach and act according to the will of his Heavenly Father, he will do so according to the manner in which his earthly parents spoke and acted and lived.

 Friday in the Third Week of Advent, December 17, 2021

Matthew 1:1-17

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar. Perez became the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab. Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. Boaz became the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth. Obed became the father of Jesse, Jesse the father of David the king. David became the father of Solomon, whose mother had been the wife of Uriah. Solomon became the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asaph. Asaph became the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, Joram the father of Uzziah. Uzziah became the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah. Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amos, Amos the father of Josiah. Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the Babylonian exile. After the Babylonian exile, Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel the father of Abiud. Abiud became the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, Azor the father of Zadok. Zadok became the father of Achim, Achim the father of Eliud, Eliud the father of Eleazar. Eleazar became the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ.  Thus the total number of generations from Abraham to David is fourteen generations; from David to the Babylonian exile, fourteen generations; from the Babylonian exile to the Christ, fourteen generations.

For the ancient Jews, a person’s genealogy was a most precious possession.  Its importance surpassed that of the modern driver’s license or passport.  For a Jew at the time of Jesus, genealogy told a person or the world who somebody was: ethnicity, family of origin, and place of origin.  Beyond this, genealogy told what kind of a person somebody was.  Your forebear’s character indicated whether you were honest or a thief, brave or cowardly, generous or greedy.  Altogether, a person’s genealogy explained that person’s meaning.

St. Matthew presents the genealogy of Jesus of Nazareth in order to show his meaning, and in order to show that he was born exactly when he should have been and of exactly the right family.  Later, he will show that Jesus was born in exactly the right place.  He does the latter quite convincingly by showing that the scribes themselves knew it was the right place.  In other words, his genealogy, especially when combined with the prophecies, prove that he was the One who is to come, as John the Baptist referred to him on one occasion.  For those who might wonder, knowing one’s genealogy all the way back to the Patriarchs could be compared to modern persons knowing their social security number.  In the days when the Jews returned from the Babylonian Captivity, a few hundred years before the Birth of Christ, the heads of families had to be able to recite their genealogies back to Jacob in order to demonstrate that they were indeed Jews and to which tribe and clan they belonged.  This allowed them to fit into society and to recover their ancestral property.  

Matthew’s  meticulous recounting of the Lord’s genealogy also made it clear that he, as author of this Gospel, would meticulously narrate the principal events of his life and his teachings.  He, as author, could be trusted to relate and not to invent.  In this way, the genealogy acts as the Evangelist’s preface, or statement of purpose.  St. Luke does something like this in his introduction to his own Gospel when he says that he has looked at many accounts and talked to many witnesses in order to learn the full truth about the life of Christ.

As Christians, the Gospels are our genealogy.  They tell people our meaning, who we are, and what their expectations of us can be.  They tell people that we come from Jesus, formed by his teachings and enlivened by his grace.  They tell people that we live in hope, that we hold to our faith, and that we act in love.  They tell others that as Christ lived, so we strive to live: for the children resemble their parents.  

 Thursday in the Third Week of Advent, December 16, 202

Luke 7:24-30

When the messengers of John the Baptist had left, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John. “What did you go out to the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? Then what did you go out to see? Someone dressed in fine garments? Those who dress luxuriously and live sumptuously are found in royal palaces. Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom Scripture says: Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, he will prepare your way before you.  I tell you, among those born of women, no one is greater than John; yet the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he.” (All the people who listened, including the tax collectors, who were baptized with the baptism of John, acknowledged the righteousness of God; but the Pharisees and scholars of the law, who were not baptized by him, rejected the plan of God for themselves.)

The reason for the seeming preoccupation with John the Baptist in the Mass readings these days is that as we await the second coming of the Lord, the Church fills his role — and all of us who belong to the Church.  As John preached repentance and judgment, so does the Church in the world, and so should we.  Since the time the Lord ascended into Heaven we have lived in a long season of Advent, preparing for the great feast of Christ on the last day.

Jesus asks the crowd about their reaction to John: “What did you go out to the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind?”  He wants them to understand the significance of John which will lead them to thinking about his own significance.  John was not a “reed”, a common man influenced by whatever opinions prevailed at the moment.  At the same time, did they go out to see “someone dressed in fine garments?”  That is, did they go out to see a man notable only for his expensive clothing?  We do this when we are lured to pay attention to someone based solely on his smooth appearance. “Those who dress luxuriously and live sumptuously are found in royal palaces.”  That is, this man had put on rich clothing in order to defraud the people.

“Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.”  Notice here how Jesus speaks about John.  The Lord speaks with certainty and authority, and as John’s superior.  He speaks of the unique role John played while also expressing its limits: “This is the one about whom Scripture says: Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, he will prepare your way before you.”  The Lord quotes Malachi 3, 1.  We know that the speaker in the prophecy is the Father, speaking to the Son about his messenger, John.  “I tell you, among those born of women, no one is greater than John; yet the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he.”  The Lord sets the limit to John’s greatness here: that any of the saints standing before the face of God in heaven is “greater” than he while he lived on earth.  We might understand “greater” in terms of proximity to God’s glory.

“All the people who listened, including the tax collectors, who were baptized with the baptism of John, acknowledged the righteousness of God; but the Pharisees and scholars of the law, who were not baptized by him, rejected the plan of God for themselves.”  Luke adds his own commentary here.  He speaks first of the lowly and the despised as acknowledging the righteousness of God.  He highlights them, as it were, because they made up the core of the Jewish Christian community in Israel after the Ascension and Pentecost. Luke came to know many of them.  He speaks second of the Pharisees and the scholars of the Law.  The Douay-Rheims has a better translation than what we have in the lectionary: “But the Pharisees and the lawyers despised the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized by him.”  That is, they refused to be baptized by John because they saw no reason for their repentance, deeming themselves already righteous.

Baptized in the baptism of Jesus Christ, which fulfills the sign that was John’s baptism, we possess the grace to act as the Lord’s heralds as he did, through our words and actions.

 Wednesday in the Third Week of Advent, December 15, 2021

Luke 7:18b-23

At that time, John summoned two of his disciples and sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” When the men came to the Lord, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?’” At that time Jesus cured many of their diseases, sufferings, and evil spirits; he also granted sight to many who were blind. And Jesus said to them in reply, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.”

John the Baptist prepared the people for the coming of the Lord.  Once the Lord arrived, John sent his own disciples to him.  Many, such as Andrew and the sons of Zebedee, went to Jesus and became his disciples.  John himself said, “He must increase and I must decrease.”  Some lingered on with John.  Even after John’s imprisonment by Herod, there were those who adhered to him and continued his work.  John sent two of those who had stuck with him to Jesus and had them ask him a question.  It was a question to which John had long known the answer, but he wanted these disciples of his to hear it for themselves so that they might follow Jesus now: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?”  In other words, Are you the Redeemer?  We should note that John is careful not to use the loaded term “messiah”.

“At that time Jesus cured many of their diseases, sufferings, and evil spirits; he also granted sight to many who were blind.”  St. Matthew provides some context here.  Jesus was not only preaching throughout the land, but performing very many miracles, and in this way he surpassed what John had done.  “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard.”  The Lord does not give them a one-word answer to repeat to John, but allows them some freedom in answering him.  By doing this, he lets the messengers see for themselves and give their own answer.  Jesus does not tell them that they must now follow him, but lets them come to that conclusion on their own.  “The blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.”  His reply brings to mind a passage from the Song of Songs: “For winter is now past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers have appeared in our land, the time of pruning is come: the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.  The fig tree has put forth her green figs: the vines in flower yield their sweet smell” (Song of Songs 2, 11-13).  It is a time of rebirth for all creation, signified by these healings and the raising of the dead.  “The poor have the good news proclaimed to them.”  The “good news” is the Gospel, or the “announcement” of God that his kingdom has drawn near to men.  This is made known even to the destitute, and so to all people.  No one is left out.

“And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.”  More literally, Blessed  is he who is not caused to stumble in me.  That is, caused to stumble in their faith because the Lord came as a Galilean from a tiny town and hat he did not conform to anyone’s expectations for the Messiah.  We can also understand this as pertaining to the human nature which the Lord assumed in his Incarnation.  There were many early Christians and would-be Christians who could not understand how God could do this since mortal flesh and infinite divinity do not go together and are (they thought) opposed to each other.  These people believed that Jesus was God, and merely appeared as a man.  

We do not know what happened with these two witnesses.  They had all the evidence of Jesus as the Savior of the world that they needed to follow him, but they may have stayed with John.  We must all depart from what is comfortable for us and not let the familiar draw us back so that we might go out and follow Jesus.