Homily for the Third Sunday of Advent

December 14, 2025

There was a great and very influential Austrian-Israeli philosopher named Martin Buber. He tells a story of his paralyzed grandfather who was asked to relate a story about his great teacher, named Baal Shem Tov. The grandfather replied by telling how the holy man used to jump up and down and dance when he was praying. Being swept up in the fervor of the story, the grandfather himself stood up and began to jump and dance to show how the master had done it. At that moment the grandfather was completely healed of his paralysis.

Coming a little closer to home, in my first parish assignment in Springfield, the head custodian told me a story about a friend of his, whom he had known for more than forty years. In all that time the friend was confined to a wheelchair. Then one day, around two o’clock in the morning, my friend’s doorbell rang. He sleepily made his way to the door and found his friend, standing up, walking around, practically dancing, with tears streaming down his face. He had just returned from a healing service with Fr. Ralph DiOrio in Worcester, MA. The priest prayed over him, and he was able to get out of his wheelchair, perfectly healed.

I say this was closer to home because when I was a college student, I knew Fr. DiOrio because I helped out with a Confirmation program in the Worcester parish where he was assigned at that time.

Even closer to home, there is a story about my grandmother. Many years ago, my grandmother had an ulcer on her leg that was refusing to heal. Even though it was difficult for her to walk, on Good Friday she insisted on walking up the hill to the afternoon service. The pious Polish people of that time had the custom of going down the aisle on their knees, and then kissing Jesus on a crucifix that was lying on a pillow. I was told that, when my grandmother left the church that day, the ulcer on her leg was completely gone.

In our gospel reading today the strong and forceful character, John the Baptist has a moment of doubt. He sends his disciples to Jesus to ask, “Are you the one?” Are you the long-awaited Messiah, the long hoped-for Savior? Are you the one, or should we start looking for someone else?

Notice Jesus’ reply: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 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.” There’s kind of a rising scale here; the miracles become more and more dramatic. The blind see, the deaf hear…and then we come to the dead are raised. I would have expected Jesus to stop right there. The other things are pretty powerful, but seeing the dead being raised to life: that would have me believing for sure.

But Jesus doesn’t stop there. At the top of the rising scale, he ends with: and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. Why are the “poor getting good news” the climax of the whole thing?

Here's what I think. If you consider Jesus’ life and teaching as a whole, I think he was turning society upside down. He was turning what we consider important upside down. He said that he himself had come, not to be served, but to serve. And he taught that if we want to follow him, we are to do the same.

But there’s more to it than that. In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25, there’s the famous judgment scene in which Jesus says it will be like a shepherd separating the sheep from the goats. And what is the basis for judgment? “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me…” In other words, Jesus identifies himself totally with the poor. So, if we want not only to do Jesus will, but also to encounter him, we don’t go to the top. We don’t look for him among the high and mighty. Just as he was poor during his earthly life, so now he is the poor person who has no food, or water, or clothing. He is the stranger among us, the immigrant in our community, including those who are being rounded up like cattle. And I have to say, Wow! Does he really mean that? Can he become today’s poor? Well, if he can raise the dead, heal a man who had been in a wheelchair for forty years, and heal the sore on my grandmother’s leg, I’d say, yeah! He can do that!

You see? How we treat people matters. How we treat others, and especially the poor and vulnerable, really matters. Love is at the heart of it. Love is always at the heart of it. That’s how we judge what’s going on in our society. And it’s a good way to judge ourselves, our attitudes, our convictions, and our actions. We have a moral compass given to us by Jesus—a compass that always asks, is it loving? Is it right?