December 14, 2025
Third Sunday of Advent
Fr. Francesco Patton
Dear friends,
“May the Lord give you peace.”
I am Fr. Francesco Patton, of the Custody of the Holy Land, and I speak to you from the Memorial of Moses on Mount Nebo in Jordan.
The third Sunday of Advent always contains an invitation to rejoice, not for trivial or superficial reasons, but because we have learned to recognize the presence and action of God in our life, in our world and in our history: a presence and an action that renews and heals everything, beginning with concrete signs of goodness that are placed before our eyes.
In the gospel we have just heard, John the Baptist is in prison and sends some of his disciples to question Jesus, because a doubt has arisen in him.
Incidentally, the place where Herod Antipas had imprisoned John the Baptist and from which he sends his disciples to question Jesus is the fortress of Machaerus, rebuilt by Herod the Great between 30 and 20 B.C., not far from the Dead Sea, guarding the eastern border of his kingdom. It is currently located in Jordan, about half an hour from “Bethany beyond the Jordan,” where John preached and baptized, and only an hour from where I am speaking to you. The excavation of this site, important for the events concerning the imprisonment and death of John the Baptist narrated in the gospels, was worked on in the 1980s also by the friar archaeologists of the Franciscan Biblical School of the Flagellation, Virgilio Canio Corbo, Stanislao Loffreda and Michele Piccirillo.
Returning to us, John the Baptist sends his disciples to question Jesus because a doubt has arisen in him about his messianic identity: John expected a Messiah who would wield the axe of justice and wipe out evildoers, perhaps even a leader Messiah, and instead he finds himself faced with Jesus of Nazareth, a Messiah who meets sinners, eats with them and welcomes them with mercy, a Messiah who does not seek to stir up the crowds against the power of Rome.
Jesus then asks the Baptist to change his perspective and to learn to recognize and welcome the signs of salvation that he offers, in line with the ancient Prophecies and the Psalms, rather than those that the Baptist himself had imagined and desired to see.
To John’s doubt, therefore, Jesus replies by inviting him to open his eyes and see the seeds of that new and redeemed world, healed, which He, as the ultimate envoy of God and His incarnation, has come to bring: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news proclaimed to them. And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me!” (Mt 11:4-6).
True joy is not the emotion that comes from our expectations being fulfilled, or from the success of our projects and dreams of greatness, but is born when we learn to await and receive salvation from God, and when — consequently — we learn to discover in everyday life the good that He works in history, through His Son and the mysterious action of the Holy Spirit, beginning with humble signs.
Joy is born when we learn to recognize the dawn of a new world, which is already the first fruits of the world transformed by the resurrection of the Son of God and by the gift of His Spirit.
This Sunday let us also train ourselves to recognize the signs and seeds of goodness, even small ones, that are present around us and within us. Let us learn to recognize the seeds of goodness that we see taking shape in other people and in our world, even though it is also marked by many signs of evil and death. If God asks us to overcome evil with good, He Himself first overcomes evil with good, giving His Son Jesus out of love for us and giving His Holy Spirit to every person who has an open heart towards Him.
To all of you I wish a Sunday filled with true joy,
peace and good from the Memorial of Moses on Mount Nebo, in the Holy Land.
