Homily for the Third Sunday of Advent, Gaudate Sunday
December 11, 2022
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas
Isaiah 35:1-6a, 10
Psalm 146:6-7, 8-9, 9-10
James 5:7-10
Matthew 11:2-11
John the Baptist is the last and greatest prophet before the coming of the Messiah. His prophetic witness begins even before his own birth and also before the birth of Jesus, as he leaps in the womb of his mother Elizabeth when she is visited by the Blessed Virgin Mary who is pregnant with Jesus. Elsewhere in the Gospel, John the Baptist proclaims Jesus to be the Lamb of God who has come to deliver us from our sins. John the Baptist protests Jesus’ desire to be baptized by him because he knows himself not even to be worthy to untie the straps of his sandals.
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