3rd Sunday of Advent (Mt 11:2-11)

          Often, as followers of Jesus we may feel guilty about having doubts about our lack of belief. We may think that once we have a conversion, we should never look back. We must move forward.  We never second guess what we are taught about God.  But often, people with deep faith do doubt what they have been told.

               Even a great saint like John the Baptist expressed doubt.  Jesus gives him the ultimate compliment when he says, “Among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” But John questioned his faith. The gospel we read today takes place when John is in jail.

               We may think that after John was arrested, he sat in prison and was isolated from the rest of the world. But obviously, he was still getting information.  He was also enduring psychological torture.  We could be reminded of what happens to prisoners of war.  One of the common ways of breaking the spirit of prisoners is to put them in solitary confinement where they have no news except the news provided by their oppressors.  The messages that are repeated are: You are forgotten. The people you were loyal to don’t care about you. The cause you believed in is a lie.  We can imagine that these were the messages that King Herod was giving to John.

               He was probably saying, "the person (Jesus) that you thought was coming to lead Israel out of bondage is weak. The message of a day of reckoning that you preached is not what Jesus preaches.  Jesus has betrayed you.  He has forgotten you."

               But John the Baptist was a smart man.  John did what all reflective people do.   He did his own research.  He asks a follower who visits him in prison to go to Jesus to ask Jesus what his plan is. 

               What does a strong personality do to get accurate information? Such a person tries to find out the truth. Often it is hard. Popes and presidents, many times, are isolated behind a wall of security.   Advisors surround them. Often, political operatives want to be the only conduit of information for leaders. Information is power. A good leader, however, will seek as many facts from as many sources as they can.

Abraham Lincoln was the best president ever, according to historians. During the Civil War, he assembled a cabinet of his political foes.  He wanted people around him that would challenge each other.  He listened to the arguments his cabinet had. He often disagreed with his advisors himself. Because he didn’t have a bunch of yes men surrounding him, he got accurate information. We can also remember Pope Francis who moved out of the papal palace into the Vatican guest house when he became pontiff. Why? So, he could talk with people from throughout the world. He sat down and ate with strangers in the cafeteria of the guest house asking what was going on in the church. When he did, he got a true picture of what was going on in the church.

               The message we hear today is that faith in God is unimportant.  The church is in decline. What we hear is, if we believe we should live moral lives based on honesty, integrity, chastity, fairness and solidarity then we are foolish.  We are told that those things aren’t practical.  We need to be transactional. 

               We are told by many leaders to be concerned about what is in our best interests.  We are to put our desires above everyone else. If we get what we want, and our needs are met, no one else matters. 

               We are told lies about what Jesus said.  We are caught in a prison of ideas that are fabricated by our information age. We are assured that the more we possess the better we will feel. We should live comfortably because we are more important than everyone else. Jesus is said to have preached this.

               We need to check the facts.  We need to pick up our Bibles. We need to read the Gospels.  We must go back to the original sources of our Christian faith. If we do, we will find what Jesus really said. What Jesus says to John he says to us as we search for the truth.  He says, "I have come to bring sight to the blind.  I have come to help the lame to walk. I have come to cleanse the leper.  I have come so that the dead would be raised."  Jesus never says, "I have come to dispel all doubt", but he has come to give doubters a reason to believe.