December 14, 2025

3^rdSunday of Advent (A)

God’s Plan—Be Prepared for Detours

Msgr Thomas Gervasio

 
St. John the Baptist is still accompanying us through Advent. Last Sunday, we found him in the desert urging repentance, combatting with the Sadducees and Pharisees. Today we find him not preaching in the wilderness but languishing in prison. From his cell John sends his disciples to Jesus with a question: “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to expect another?” It is a strange question coming from someone who had baptized the Lord and pointed him out as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” There may be two motives for his question.
 
The Church Fathers suggest that he posed the question on behalf of his inquiring disciples. They may have been asking John if Jesus was indeed the Messiah, and John’s response, in effect was, “If you want to know, go ask him yourselves: “Are you the one who is to come or not?”
 
Some scholars, on the other hand, contend that the John’s question was personal. It may well be that he was perplexed and even discouraged. John, like so many others, expected the Messiah to be a military conqueror who would overturn the oppressive political order. But Jesus was not acting in the way John expected. Our Lord’s reply to John was: “The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the poor have the Gospel proclaimed to them.” Jesus was indeed fulfilling the Messianic prophecies of Isaiah.
 
John’s discouragement and doubts should not surprise us. The greatest saints struggled to understand God’s ways. They doubted, they questioned, they became discouraged. And yet, God worked through them that the strongest doubters became the strongest believers.
 
The Baptist had to refine his understanding of how God was working out his plan of salvation…not through the crushing of Israel’s enemies, but through the transformative power of Christ’s humility, meekness, healing, and mercy.
 
What of us? Don’t we have moments when we wonder how God is working out his plan for our life? We have plans we feel are secure, but suddenly life throws a wrench into those plans—the loss of a job, illness, financial struggles, the breakdown in a relationship—doubt and discouragement creep in. Facing one detour after another in life’s journey can make us question God’s goodness.
 
I like the image C.S. Lewis gives us about God at work in our life: “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But now He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts terribly and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”
 
Gracious Father, at times I doubt that Your plans for me are good. When I cannot see the bigger picture, prepare me to handle the detours along the way. Help me trust that You are working all things for my good. Teach me to surrender my will to Yours and to believe that Your plans are far better than anything I could create.