December 14, 2025
3rd Sunday
Advent
FOCUS: Lord, come and save us.
Jesus’ actions speak for themselves: The blind see; the lame walk; the poor receive the Good News. John the Baptist need not look for another, for God has arrived in human flesh, bringing the kingdom of God with him. Today, we carry on Jesus’ work, allowing our words and actions to embody the love of God in the world.
What's in Your Heart
Are we waiting in joyful hope, or just watching the clock? Patience is one of those virtues that are in short supply in a society in a hurry to get what it wants. Faster internet and quick pizza delivery are only two symptoms of our inability to "wait a minute" for good things to happen.
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When have you seen the flowering of a "desert" situation? Are there deserts in your life that you would like to see bloom?
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How does God till the soil of your life, and what responsibility do you accept for the person you are becoming?
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When have you hesitated, like John the Baptist, in your certainty of Jesus? What signs have you seen that he is the "one who is to come"?
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Are you a hopeful person, or cautious or pessimistic? How does your ability to be hopeful influence your announcement of the Good News?
Homily Stories
As I bounced in the back of a truck along a dirt road into the wilderness, I was indeed going to see people dressed in fine clothing. But it was to no palace—rather a ceremonial dance circle tucked deep in the woods of the unceded land of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi—a Native American tribe of about 5,000 members in Southwest Michigan. Their fine clothing, I was told, should be respectfully called “regalia”—every bead and ribbon a part of sacred symbols and community stories.
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The dancing, which lasted for hours, was spectacular. Men and women, young and old moved in a clockwise direction around an enormous drum, around which a group of men drummed and sang. It was so stirring I longed to join in, but I remained on the sidelines, quietly taking photos (with the permission of the tribe). Still, even as a spectator, I felt included. God’s presence in the stunning beauty of this artful physical expression of prayer and worship pounded in me.
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I’m reminded that convert means “to turn around.” While many at the time of Jesus were looking for a messiah in fancy robes, they instead found a herald who heeded an eternal drumbeat, making dusty ground holy with sacred steps that beckoned us—for some irresistibly—to return again and again to the path and move deeper into the divine.
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