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Our Lord asks the people today, “What did you go out to the desert to see?” He asks them this question as they begin to leave, after he responds to John’s disciples. They have asked if he is the one who is to come. Our Lord’s response to John’s moment of doubt is to remind him that he has done the deeds of the Messiah. He has given sight to the blind, made the lame to walk, cured the lepers, risen the dead, and preached the good news. They then proceed to leave, as if they were disappointed.

What had they come to see?

As they depart, our Lord asks “What did you go out to the desert to see?” Going to the desert to see the Baptist was a dangerous thing to do. It took time and resources to go out to the desert. The terrain is challenging and dangerous: Jerusalem is on the top of a hill, and the Jordan is far below it. The roads were fraught with danger: Remember the good parable of the Samaritan? Being beaten and left on the side of the road was something that very well could happen any time you left a city. Why would they put all this effort into seeing John the Baptist?

John the Baptist, in his preaching, told the people that he was not the messiah. “Why then did you go out?” he asks. They certainly would not go through such trouble for a reed shaken by the wind. They would not go through such trouble for a man who wears soft robes. Why then did you go out? They went out to see a prophet.

John was the greatest born of women, Christ tells us. He constantly followed the will of God. He wore hair shirts and he ate honey and locusts. He preached strenuously about the coming of the Kingdom of God and preached that sinners must repent. He repented and sought the kingdom, and his true disciples did do as well. In fact, Christ’s first disciple and first apostle was Andrew, who followed John until the moment John proclaimed that Christ was the Lamb of God.

But how did most of the crowds following John respond to his teaching? They did not follow it. They did not repent. They did not make straight the unjust paths of their hearts. They did not fill the empty valleys of their soul with virtue. They did not level their mountains of pride and the hills of arrogance. They did not recognize the Lamb of God. They were unwilling to accept John’s message, just as they were unwilling to accept our Lord’s message. They said they had gone to see a prophet, but they did allow his words to enter their hearts. In honesty, they had gone to see a spectacle.

As we continue through Advent, we must ask ourselves this same question: What did you go out to the desert to see? For us, we have come not to a desert, but to a church. Many of us go through great effort to get here. And why have we done so? The obvious answer is, of course, the Mass.

But is it?

We must guard against the same small-heartedness that we see in John’s disciples. Have we come to Mass, to this Mass, so that I may experience the life of God? Have I come here to lay aside the garment of misery and mourning that accompanies sin and to put on the splendor of the glory of God? Have I truly come to lay aside the ways of sin and put on virtue? Have I come so that the Kingdom of God may enter my heart?

Or have I come for some other reason?

What did you go out to see? May we all answer: We have come here to see the Lord. May any other reason or desire within us be cast aside.

As we prepare to approach the altar of God and receive his Body and Blood, may our hearts be stirred up with love for him, and may we leave aside any encumbrance of sin that may hinder us and prepare the way for the Lord in our own hearts. We pray in today’s collect: “Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to prepare the ways of Your only-begotten Son, so that through His coming we may be able to serve You with purified minds.”

Amen.

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Homily for the Second Sunday of Advent (1962 Missale Romanum)
Scriptures: Romans 15:4-13; Matthew 11:2-10