December 14, 2025

Third Sunday in Advent Cycle A

Isaiah 35:1-6a,10; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11

Many people know the life and work of Saint Teresa of Calcutta because she traveled the world telling the story of her work in India in an effort to spotlight the plight of the poor. But because she focused on the poor and not herself, two significant events in her life did not come out during her lifetime, at least not fully. The first was about her calling at the start of her ministry dedicated to the poor. She was already in India, working as a nun as a Loreto sister, whose mission in India and other countries was to improve the lot of the people through education – she was a teacher. But on a train ride from Calcutta to Darjeeling, she had an experience in which she felt an incredible closeness to God, and moreover, that God was calling her to a new mission, one taking care of the poor and the helpless in a more immediate way. Everyone knows the story that she then left the Loreto sisters, even though she loved that order, and founded a new order, but the experience of the call from God, her feeling of closeness to God's presence and God's desire for her service, was something she shared only with her confessor and immediate supervisors. The second event, or in actuality non-event, in her life was that she never again experienced this closeness to God. What became known only after her death and that has surprised many people is that she felt an incredible distance from God, like God didn't exist. She struggled with what Saint John of the Cross called the “dark night of the soul” for the rest of her life.

I bring this story up because I think it is similar to what we see going on in our Gospel today. John the Baptist is asking Jesus if he's the one, if he is the Messiah. Now since at Mass we don't state aloud the chapter and verse number of our readings, you might not have noticed that this passage is well after John baptizes Jesus in the third chapter of Matthew, when he almost refused to do so because he was the one who should receive the baptism by Jesus, not do the baptizing [Matthew 3:14]. We heard in last week's Gospel from that same chapter three that there was one coming who “is mightier than I” [Matthew 3:11]. And so it is puzzling that, in today's Gospel from chapter eleven, just about halfway through Matthew's gospel, we have John questioning whether Jesus is the Messiah. John is in prison and will be put to death shortly, so he is under a lot of stress, but still, we ask ourselves: how can John the Baptist, of all people, doubt? John the Baptist, John, the cousin of Jesus, John, the herald of the Messiah. Now, how can this be: John, the doubter?

Doubt is part of the human condition. We all doubt at times in our lives, and the doubt can be overwhelming sometimes, especially when it affects our lives or the lives of those around us in critical ways. We all doubt, and we should doubt. Stay away from anyone who doesn't doubt on significant decisions, since this is an indication of a toxic combination of arrogance and ignorance. But then again neither should we let our natural sense of doubt paralyze us with fear. As our mission preacher Father Jim told us last week, there are many times in the bible that we are told “be not afraid.”

Now this is easily said but not so easily done. A teenager facing peer pressure to do something that he or she knows is wrong has doubt. A young adult is facing the world and all of the many choices for careers, wondering which will be the best fit for their talents – they face doubt. Adults in marriage who hit a rocky patch and can't seem to see eye-to-eye with their spouse on some important matter can let doubt consume them. And of course someone facing a major medical condition is filled with doubt about how to approach living in a significantly altered world, at least for them and their family. So simply saying “be not afraid” can seem a little trite, too simplistic for the situation.

Here's where the example of Saints Mother Teresa and John the Baptist come in. They faced doubt, but they were able to deal with it because of their trust in God. It was right there in the First Reading: “Say to the fearful of heart: Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God, he comes with vindication; With divine recompense he comes to save you” [Isaiah 35:4 NABRE]. God will provide if we make the choices that we know in our hearts that God wants us to make. We come every week to Mass, we hear the Word of God, we hear the teachings of the Church, and we know the call of our conscience informed by this. If, after prayer, we then follow our hearts with the love of God and neighbor as our guide, we can do so in the faith that God is with us, and, even if we don't feel God's immediate presence with us, we can know that God is indeed at our side and will be there for us.

Whoever your patron saint is, whichever saint you feel most closely akin to, do not put that saint on a pedestal. Many biographies of saints unfortunately do this, talking about their successes without mentioning any of their struggles. They were all real people with real problems, whether we know what they were or not. But they overcame their problems, they overcame their doubts, and in the end trusted God and dedicated their lives of Jesus. We are called at all times, but especially during this Advent season, to follow their lead.

Today we welcome two new members to our Church. They felt a calling by God to join a church, and research on the teachings of the Catholic Church has led them to this day. Doubt is a good theme for today then, as I can promise you that doubt about anything, whether related to God or to how to approach a decision in life, will never cease. What joining a church gives you, what we as a Christian community promise to you today, is that we will be there with you. We are not perfect. Our Church is not perfect. It is made of human beings with strengths and weaknesses, just as the saints were not perfect. But we venerate the saints, that is to say we regard them with great respect, because they worked through their doubt, and we in the church are working together to work through our doubts. Together, we will, with God's grace, help each other throughout our lives so that we will be welcomed into the community of saints ourselves.

As we continue with our Mass with the celebration of the Eucharist, let this most sacred sacrament fill us with God's grace to face any fears and doubts that we might have. Especially on this Third Sunday of Advent, when we celebrate Gaudete Sunday, gaudete being the Latin word for rejoice, we remember to be thankful and joyful that, among many other things, the saints have shown us the way to live a life in Christ despite their human failings. It is in this knowledge that fear and doubt can be overcome and we too may live the call to sainthood that we are commissioned in baptism to lead.