Healing, sharing, and blessing

Third Sunday of Advent
Gospel: Mt 11:2-11
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121425.cfm

When John’s disciples asked Jesus if he was the Messiah to come, he didn’t give them a simple “yes”, but told them to share what they saw and heard. He then provided them with examples. He first listed off five miracles of healing:  two miracles of sensory healing, one miracle of healing disease, one of mobility, and one of bringing back to life. Then he turned to sharing good news to the poor. He concluded with blessing those who did not take offense to his message. His explanation was focused on them observing healing, teaching, and blessing. The observations on Jesus’s divinity are relational. Jesus didn’t emphasize his personal accomplishments or power but kept his focus on the impact it had on others. Jesus’s divinity is recognized through delivering to the needs of others, not on his personal greatness.

In the short duration Jesus was alive on earth, he needed to make a significant impact so that those who had seen and heard would carry on the message and continue to live the example as followers. While we have also fallen very short throughout history, there has always been some to carry the message forward. That is how in the gospel of John, Jesus is able to say to Thomas, “Blessed are they who have not seen, but believed.” After Jesus’s ascension, we may not see Jesus directly in bodily form, but we can know through the message that has been carried on through others, scripture, creation itself, and moments of divine connection. We, like those in Jesus’s time, continue to experience and encounter God through healing, sharing the gospel, and blessing. As followers, may we continue to carry on this tradition for those in our time and for future generations.