NOTE: Throughout the Advent season, we’ll post a new or “classic” reflection on the readings for the upcoming Sunday in Advent so individuals and groups can reflect in anticipation or incorporate it into their meetings, homilies, etc. The reflection will be available on our Advent 2025 webpage.
The reflection below is written by Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace Fr. John Dear from the 2007 Advent reflection booklet, “The Advent of the God of Peace.” This year’s booklet is still available for purchase at this link as an immediate download for your tablet or e-reader for $2.50.
by Fr. John Dear
Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace
Originally published in 2007
Isaiah 35:1-6, 10 | James 5:7-10 | Matthew 11:2-11
Go back and report to John what you hear and see: Those who are blind recover their sight; those who cannot walk are able to walk; those with leprosy are cured; those who are deaf hear; the dead are raised to life; and the anawim – the ‘have-nots’ – have the Good News preached to them. Matthew 11:4-5
John the Baptist, festering in Herod’s prison, facing execution, wrestles with Jesus’s scandalous nonviolence. Jesus fails to measure up to John’s messianic notions of righteous anger, wrath, and revenge. Where’s the lash and fury? When will divine vengeance be let off its leash? Could this gentle Jesus really be the Holy One of God? Does that mean everything we thought about the wrath of God is wrong?
He dispatches a messenger or two to inquire. “Are you the one who is to come or should we look for another?” (Matthew 11:2)
Jesus delivers a reply both humble and revolutionary. God’s reign does not reach down from the heights of power, from the Oval Office or a Pentagon war room. Instead, it breaks through in the concrete acts of compassion, healing, justice, and in the nonviolent liberation of the poor and oppressed.
“Those who are blind recover their sight,” Jesus reports. “Those who cannot walk are able to walk; those with leprosy are cured; those who are deaf hear; the dead are raised to life; and the anawim – the ‘have-nots’ – have the Good News preached to them.” Such acts give birth to the reign of peace, reveal the presence of the God of peace, and point to the junction of divinity and humanity. And blessed is the one who recognizes the God of peace. Tell the Baptist he needs no further evidence than this.
We need no further evidence either. A good question for us: Where do we see such things in our own lives and in the world? How might we join the cause of liberation, healing, and justice or deepen our involvement?
Many avenues lie before us. In Catholic Worker houses, Pax Christi groups, nonviolent civil disobedience witnesses, Plowshares actions, anti-war vigils, efforts to abolish the death penalty, teaching peace and nonviolent conflict resolution. In every act of love and kindness, in every nonviolent campaign for justice and disarmament, there the God of Peace is present. There peace on earth emerges like a green shoot from a parched ground. There God’s reign of peace shines. And it is ours to take part in.
This Advent, ask again for the grace to join God’s ongoing work of disarming love. Give God permission to use you. Then, like John, discover the nonviolent Christ in those you consider an enemy and those who are poor, in the nonviolent struggle for justice and liberation. As you do these things, consciously prepare anew for the coming of the God of peace into the world.
*Bible citations from The Inclusive New Testament
Thank you for this important message from John Dear.
Blessings to all.
Sister Mary Lou Geraets