Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Scripture Readings
First Isaiah 35:1-6a, 10
Second James 5:7-10
Gospel Matthew 11:2-11
1. Subject Matter
• Gaudete Sunday: “The desert will rejoice with joyful song…. Those whom the Lord has
ransomed will return…crowned with everlasting joy; they will meet with joy and gladness.”
• The connection between “desire” and “joy” - the role of desire in our sanctification.
2. Exegetical Notes
• “See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient” – “Be patient not
only in the face of outrageous injustice, but toward the ordinary trials of life” (JBC).
• “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” – “The very security of
disbelief as well as that of orthodoxy is probed deeply by the New Testament, to see whether
it still contains an openness to faith. If faith is not simply assent to a proposition but life with
God, then it can live only by increasing and decreasing, in experiences that strengthen or
endanger it” (E. Schweizer).
7. Other Considerations
• The reality that unites the blind, the deaf, and lame, and the mute is that they all live with the
desire for what will make them whole. Despite their disability, their anguish, their desolation,
they had something that kept them going: their desire for healing…to be saved from what
oppressed and afflicted them. Desire drew them to God.
• What sustains John the Baptist in the agony of his imprisonment is his desire for the
Messiah: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?”
Recommended Resources
Benedict XVI, Pope. Spe Salvi/Saved in Hope (Holy Father’s new encyclical on hope)
Benedict XVI, Pope. Benedictus. Yonkers: Magnificat, 2006.
Hahn, Scott:
http://www.salvationhistory.com/library/scripture/churchandbible/homilyhelps/homilyhelps.cfm
Lohr, Aemiliana. The Mass Through the Year: Volume One—Advent to Palm Sunday.
Westminster: Newman, 1958.