Third Sunday of Advent
14 December 2025
Recognizing the Nearness of Christ in Our Midst
If you’ve ever waited for something important—
a college acceptance letter,
medical results,
a deployment ending,
the birth of a child—
then you know that waiting is not passive.
You don’t just sit around.
You anticipate.
You watch.
You analyze every sign, every update.
You feel the tension of “already, but not yet.”
Waiting stretches us.
It sharpens our attention.
And sometimes,
in the middle of waiting,
we begin asking deeper questions…
not because we lack faith,
but because our faith is being tested.
That experience helps us understand where we find John the Baptist and his disciples in today’s Gospel.
This is the Third Sunday of Advent:
Gaudete Sunday,
the Sunday of rejoicing.
Yet the Gospel doesn’t open joyfully.
John,
the great prophet,
the forerunner,
the voice crying out in the wilderness,
is in prison.
He is no longer baptizing in the Jordan.
No longer calling crowds to repentance.
No longer standing in the wilderness preparing the way.
He is confined.
Isolated.
Facing death.
And from that prison cell,
John sends word to Jesus:
“Are you the one who is to come,
or should we look for another?”
From a human perspective,
it looks like failure.
From a Jewish perspective,
it looks even more confusing.
Because John, and his disciples had been formed by Israel’s long hope for the Messiah.
In the Jewish imagination of the time,
the Messiah was expected to do very specific things:
>Restore Israel
>Judge the wicked
>Purify the nation
>Establish justice
>Defeat Israel’s enemies
>Set things right, publicly and decisively
John himself preached that kind of expectation.
He spoke of axes at the root of trees.
Of chaff being burned with unquenchable fire.
Of judgment and purification.
But John is not questioning whether Jesus is the Messiah.
He already knows who Jesus is.
He leapt in the womb at His presence.
He baptized Him in the Jordan.
He saw the heavens opened.
He heard the Father’s voice.
John is not asking for himself.
He is asking for his disciples.
From prison,
John can no longer point to Jesus with his finger.
So he points to Him with a question.
In other words, John is saying to his followers:
“Go to Him.
Listen to Him.
See for yourselves.”
Even in chains,
John is still preparing the way of the Lord…
not now by preaching,
but by handing his disciples over to Christ.
So, if the First Sunday of Advent called us to wake up,
and the Second Sunday called us to make space,
then this Third Sunday invites us to something just as essential:
Learn to recognize the Lord’s nearness…
especially when it does not match our expectations.
Jesus does not answer John’s messengers with an argument or a title.
He answers with signs.
“Go and tell John what you hear and see.”
Not speculation.
Not theory.
Not political claims.
But with reality:
The blind see.
The lame walk.
Lepers are cleansed.
The deaf hear.
The dead are raised.
The poor have good news preached to them.
And most importantly,
sins are being forgiven,
something only the Messiah could inaugurate.
Jesus is saying,
“This is what the Messiah looks like.
This is how the Kingdom comes.”
And that brings us directly to Isaiah.
Isaiah paints a stunning picture of what happens when God draws near:
The desert blooms.
The weak grow strong.
Fear gives way to courage.
The mute shout for joy.
Sorrow and mourning end.
Isaiah is not describing fireworks.
He is describing transformation.
The Messiah does not arrive by crushing His enemies.
He arrives by restoring what is broken.
And here is the key insight of Gaudete Sunday:
God’s nearness always brings life.
But it does not always look the way we expect.
Most of the time God comes quietly.
Slowly.
Gently.
Humbly.
Faithfully.
Not with spectacle,
but with grace.
And if we are not attentive, we can miss Him,
not because He is absent,
but because He is humble,
and especially when He does not meet our expectations of how He will show up.
This is where the Gospel speaks directly to us.
How often do we ask God to work in one way,
while He is already working in another?
We say:
“Lord, fix this problem,”
and God gives us strength to endure.
“Lord, change my circumstances,”
and God begins by changing our hearts.
“Lord, bring peace,”
and God starts within us before He moves beyond us.
“Lord, act now,”
and God invites us to trust His timing.
Sometimes we struggle to recognize God’s nearness
not because He is far away,
but because He is closer—and quieter—than we expected.
We wanted Him loud.
He came gentlely.
We wanted Him fast.
He came patiently.
We wanted Him powerful.
He came humbly.
We wanted Him to change others.
He began with changing us.
Saint James ties this together beautifully in the second reading:
“Be patient.
Strengthen your hearts,
for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”
In this epistle,
James compares faith to farming.
The farmer knows that growth is happening long before fruit appears.
Seeds grow underground.
Roots deepen unseen.
Faith works the same way.
Advent is not just about waiting for Christ to come.
It is about learning how to recognize how He is already coming.
And that takes patience.
Attention.
Hope.
So where might Christ be drawing near to you right now?
Perhaps in a relationship that is slowly healing.
In a habit that is loosening its grip.
In a peace that surprises you.
In forgiveness you never thought possible.
In strength you didn’t know you had.
In suffering that is deepening your compassion.
In a quiet longing for something more.
Isaiah says the desert blooms when God comes.
Sometimes the bloom is small.
Sometimes it is just beginning.
Don’t miss it.
God’s nearness is rarely dramatic…
but it is always life-giving.
After Jesus responds to John’s disciples,
He turns to the crowd and says:
“Among those born of women,
there has been none greater than John the Baptist.”
John’s role was never to hold onto disciples,
but to lead them to Christ.
And that is what he does…
faithfully, courageously, even from prison.
This is the message of the Third Sunday of Advent:
God is not only coming.
God is already here.
We don’t have to wait until Christmas morning to open the gift that God the Father gave us in His Son.
He is present and available to you today.
Learn to recognize Him.
Ask for eyes to see Christ in the ordinary, mundane things in life.
Ask for trust when His work unfolds quietly.
Ask for the grace to rejoice…
not because everything is perfect,
but because God is with you.
Rejoice.
The Lord is nearer than you think.