Welcome to Finding God in Our Hearts. The following production Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a weekly program of deep spiritual insight on Scripture, revealing the indwelling presence of God. Monsignor Fisher is a Catholic priest, a member of the Diocese of Dallas, and founder of the Pastoral Reflections Institute, a nonprofit in Dallas, Texas, dedicated to to enriching your spiritual journey. We appreciate your listenership and if you find this program valuable, please subscribe and share with your friends. This program is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you make your donation@pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com. We’re celebrating the third Sunday of Adventure and opening our hearts to the wisdom found in these readings.

The Opening Prayer O God, who see how your people faithfully await the feast of the Lord’s Nativity, enable us, we pray, to attain the joys of so great a salvation and to celebrate them always with solemn worship and glad rejoicing through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen. A Reading from the prophet Isaiah 35th chapter, first verse to the sixth verse and the tenth verse the desert and the parched land will exalt the steep will rejoice and bloom they will bloom with abundant flowers and rejoice with joyful song. The glory of Lebanon will be given to them, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God. Strengthen the hands that are feeble, make firm the knees that are weak.

Say to those whose hearts are frightened, be strong. Fear not. Here is your God. He comes with vindication, with divine recompense he comes to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be clear. Then will the lame leap like a stag.

Then the tongue of the mute will sing and those whom the Lord has ransomed will return and enter Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy. They will meet with joy and gladness. Sorrow and mourning will flee the word of the Lord. Lord, come and save us. The Lord God keeps faith forever, secures justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets captives free.

Lord, come and save us. The Lord gives sight to the blind the Lord raises up those who are bowed down. The Lord loves the just the Lord protects strangers. Lord, come and save us. The fatherless and the widow he sustains but the way of the wicked he thwarts. The Lord shall reign forever, your God, O Zion 3 through all generations.

Lord, come and save us a reading from St. James 5:10 Be patient, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You too must be patient. Make your hearts firm, because the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not complain, brothers and sisters, about one another, that you may not be judged.

Behold, the judge is standing before the gates. Take an example of hardship and patience, brothers and sisters in the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord, the word of the Lord. Alleluia Verse the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. Alleluia the gospel reading for this third Sunday of Advent is taken from St. Matthew 11th chapter, second to the 11th verse. When John the Baptist heard in prison of the works of the Christ, he sent his disciples to Jesus with this are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?

Jesus said to them in reply, 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, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them, and blessed is the one who takes no offense in me. As they were going off, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John. What did you go out to the desert to see? A reed swaying in the wind. Then what did you go out to see?

Someone dressed in fine clothing. Those who wear fine clothing are in royal palaces. Then why did you go out to see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, I am more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written. Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you.

He will prepare your way before you. And men, I say to you, among those born of woman, there has never been one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. The Gospel of the Lord and let us now listen to the music of Ryan Harner as we ponder these images that we’re asked to understand and to make ours. The season of Advent is all about being awakened. And this third Sunday of Advent is a very interesting Sunday because it talks so blatantly clearly about the joy that we should be having when we imagine the unfolding of life around us.

There was a woman lived 600 years ago. Her name was Julia of Norwich. She was outside of London. And the interesting thing about her life is that she became so amazingly clear in describing the world as God has created it in a way that created joy inside the hearts of everyone. And joy isn’t necessarily being super happy. And, you know, I don’t know, but think of joy not so much as going around and, you know, being in a party mood.

But joy has something to do with well being, a sense of all is well. And that’s the very quote that Julia of Norwich is most known for. All is well and all will be well. And she lived during a time in the world where it was not anything good. Well, it was good in some ways, but there was a lot of bad, and they’re similar to the bad things that are happening in our world. There was a plague at the time where 30% of the people in.

In northern Europe died. Think of it. 30%. And then the pope, there were two popes, and the Church was in chaos. And so the Church wasn’t doing very well. There was this enemy called the Black Plague, destroying people.

And yet she’s a woman who preached so clearly and so succinctly that we should be people of optimism, optimism. And maybe that’s what we need today. We’ve been through on our own kind of plague, Covid. And now other things are coming up. It’s the season of flu, it’s the other respiratory diseases are there. And so we might be looking at this world and saying, this is just a mess.

This is terrible, and maybe this is the beginning of the end, and maybe we’re being punished for our sins. And one of the dangers of Christianity is basically, you know, oversimplifying this whole thing. This life we’re living is a mystery. And we’re here to become, to evolve, to grow. And this growing, this becoming, is never over, never complete, because it’s tied to our very existence. We’re supposed to be engaged in things that are difficult, painful, horrible, and we’re to grow through them and we’re to become through them.

So let’s look at these readings from that perspective of what it is that we are supposed to be engaged in that’s mysterious, that is hidden, that you have to really have a way of seeing that is not logical and easy to describe and impossible to prove. But the first reading I love because it’s all about this incredible promise from God that there is this thing he longs to create inside of you and inside of me. And it’s called abundance and glory. And there’s something about the glory of God that you have to believe in. The glory of God is man and the human race fully alive, fully awake, fully alert, and in somehow feeling that all is well. And so you see images of be strong, don’t be afraid.

Strengthen your hands, strengthen your hearts, and open your eyes, open your ears to hear the truth, to see reality. And then you’ll be alive, leaping like a stag, and you’ll be able to sing. Now think about that. Those are all images of a beautiful promise from God that we are in the process of becoming who we’re called to be through a process that doesn’t at times feel or look or sense like good things, but they are there for a purpose, and they have meaning, and they change us and we grow. So what’s necessary in order to be in a place of peace in the midst of chaos? Patience.

Be patient, my brothers and sisters, James tells us, and realize that it’s like, you know, this earth is a good image of who we are. Think of the earth, the ground, as redemptive, the redemptive love of God. And we are the plant. And our roots go deep into this promise of God that he is not going to save us. He is saving us. It’s a dynamic, living thing.

And he saves us through the difficulties and the pain that we endure. And then the rains come, which is forgiveness. And then we’re in this process of becoming. And, you know, it’s like, you know, there’s another passage of Scripture that talks about the farmer goes out and he looks at everything and he doesn’t see it changing. And then he comes back a week later and, oh, my God, it’s changed so much. I love that image of.

If you’re thinking about, I don’t see something happening right now, but if I look back over six months of my life, I can tell you from my own standpoint, there has been a darkness that absolutely has led into light. So that’s the promise that we will live in the light. And the patience is what we need to be engaged in. And then we realize that this God who has come has come with an incredible gift. And the incredible gift is vindication. Vindication.

We’re no longer held to what we’ve done that’s wrong. We’re freed and recompensed. Everything is paid. Our debts are paid. So there’s something about negative things that happen that we tend to imagine that somehow it’s our fault, especially if we’re in a bad place, mentally or emotionally, and we beat ourselves up because we shouldn’t be this way. And yet we’re told over and over again, don’t focus on who is the cause of this, but somehow greet it with some Kind of joy, some kind of awareness that it’s so valuable.

And I look at the promise of God coming to us and there’s something so beautiful about that image of God coming to us. And I don’t know if you hear it like I used to always hear it. That means at the end of the world, God is going to come. But the truth is God is coming daily to you and to me. He dwells in you, he’s part of you. And he’s the only source that I know in my mind and heart could possibly give us this sense of well being in the midst of darkness.

And that’s his gift, that’s his presence inside your heart, this God who became incarnate in the world. And if we believe that miracle, then why wouldn’t we believe the miracle that he could also come into you, into me? Not in the same sense that we are becoming Jesus, literally, no. But we have within us the same thing Jesus had within him that enabled him to do the most extraordinary things, the miracles. Blind see, lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised. The deaf hear, the poor feel something like life coming into them.

What beautiful images. Those are about the work of God inside of you and me. And his coming then is there to offset the struggles and the pain and the disappointments and the suffering. And it’s interesting that you listen to that same list in the other reading. And in this reading he adds two things. Lepers are cleansed.

Dead or raised. Lepers are cleansed. As the image of sin is forgiven, the dead are raised. Is the fact that not simply that we won’t die and go into a non existence, but will continue to exist? No, he’s talking about when you feel absolutely empty and broken and sinful and unworthy of anything. That’s a kind of death.

And from it, when you surrender to it, when you accept it as a process that brings life, there’s resurrection. So what are we asked to see? You’ll notice that Jesus, when John the Baptist comes to, sends his disciples to Jesus. It’s so interesting. It gives you a sense that John and Jesus both were hoping and longing. But I’d say John was hoping and longing for a Messiah and didn’t realize it was Jesus, it was his cousin.

I mean, it would be hard for him to imagine that my cousin is the little boy I played with when I was a young boy, that he’s the Messiah. But John knew it by the words that Jesus spoke. And isn’t it interesting the way Jesus responded to this question just look at what I’m doing. Look at the effectiveness of a God who is in me making the world so different in terms of our response to it, that we can be different than what we would suppose that we should be because of all these causes. You know, if things are falling apart, then I’m falling apart. If things are bad, then I’m bad.

If things are dark, then I’m in darkness. No, but Jesus response is, you know, wait a minute, John wants to know who I am. I want to tell you who John is. So Jesus said, look, John, he is the one that sums up the entire Old Testament. He is the one who is the message that has been longed for throughout the whole Old Testament. And that is, I’m sending, I’m sending God, I’m sending me.

I’m coming to you and I’m going to dwell with you. And that’s what John is proclaiming even though he didn’t realize it was Jesus, but he was proclaiming the most amazing transformation that human beings could experience because of divinity living inside of him. And so when he says, John the Baptist is the greatest of all the prophets, meaning the message of the Old Testament, the greatest message of the Old Testament is Jesus, Jesus, God in man. And yet when he says how great John the Baptist and the message is, he’s saying, that’s nothing compared to a person, you, me, who have this conviction, this knowledge that this coming that we talk about the longing of God to come back and for Jesus to come back and save us, you know, no, that isn’t. At the end, that’s happening right now to you and to me. And the sign of it, an amazing, amazing optimism.

All is well and all will be well. God bless you. The closing prayer. Father, awaken us to the gift of your indwelling presence so that this promise that you will bring peace in the midst of turmoil, joy in the midst of sadness, freedom amidst of slavery, all these promises that you’ve made to us help them to become part of who we are. Not just thoughts that we can go to if we remember them, but just our very being is filled with optimism and the joy of knowing that we’re participating in the transformation of the human race and becoming more and more like you who made us to be filled with joy. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.

The music in our program was composed and produced by Ryan Harner for this show, Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher. A listener supported program is archived and available on our website pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com and available anytime, anywhere, and for free on our podcast, Finding God in Our Hearts. You can search and subscribe to Finding God in Our Hearts anywhere you download your podcasts. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you. You can make a one time or recurring tax deductible donation on our website pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com we thank you for your listenership and your continued support. Without it, this program would not be possible.

Pastor Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a production of the Pastoral Reflections Institute, a NonProfit in Dallas, Texas dedicated to enriching your spiritual journey. Executive Producer Monsignor Don Fisher Produced by Kyle Cross and recorded in Pastoral Reflections Institute Studios. Copyright 2020.