What thresholds do you need to cross? (3 of 4)

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On the First Sunday of Advent, we stood at the threshold of the “I don’t know.” Crossing that could have helped us face what lay ahead. On the Second Sunday of Advent, we prayed at the threshold of new images of God. On this Third Sunday of Advent, we venture into even more thresholds and continue our adventure…

I often tell my Scripture students that to go deeper into the Bible, they should ask, “What is strange here?” In our Gospel today (Matthew 11:2-11), John the Baptist sends his disciples to Jesus with this question: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” Do you find anything strange there? Pause for a few moments before scrolling down…

For me, the strangeness lies in the dramatic change between the John the Baptist we met last week in Matthew 3:1-12 and the John the Baptist we are encountering now. Just seven days ago, John the Baptist was so confident and sure: “The one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals.” If we had read a little further, we would have seen John coming face to face with Jesus and telling him, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?” What happened in just eight chapters? Why is John the Baptist now doubting Jesus?

The answer is in the opening verse of our Gospel today: “When John the Baptist heard in prison of the works of the Christ, he sent his disciples to Jesus with this question….” John is now imprisoned. In our dark moments, doubt creeps in.

Perhaps the worm of doubt had burrowed into John’s mind and made him ask, “If Jesus is the Messiah, and I have done my part in announcing his coming, why am I now in jail? Shouldn’t I be on the winning side? Why am I rotting here in prison?”

Perhaps, as we did last week, John needed to challenge his image of what the Christ is supposed to be. Imprisonment, crucifixion, and death are actually very much in line with the kind of Messiah Jesus is. But in prison, this would have been very frightening to consider. In our dark moments, we can get locked into our own concerns and fears.

What can help us break free? These are the thresholds we are invited to cross this week.

What should we do when, in our dark moments, doubt creeps in? We learn from John the Baptist: He called his friends to help him. One threshold we should try to cross is self-sufficiency—the mistaken belief that we must face darkness alone.

What should we do when in our dark moments, we get locked into our concerns and fears? We learn from Jesus’ answer to John’s friends, “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.”

When we are blinded by our own problems and difficulties, we are invited to look outside ourselves and see that good things are still happening to others. Again we see the importance of friends who can bring this message to us and help us hope again. The title of one of Saint John Paul II’s books can be instructive: Crossing the Threshold of Hope.

But seeing how others are being blessed can also pummel us into despair—especially when we start thinking, “Some of those people do not deserve to be blessed more than me. If the blind are receiving their sight again, why not me? If the lame are walking again, why not me? If lepers are being cleansed, why not me? If the deaf are hearing again, why not me? If the dead are being raised, why not poor me?”

And we are locked into just the “me” again. Can we cross the threshold of the “me”?

The last line of Jesus’ reply to John’s friends is the climax of his answer: “The poor have the good news proclaimed to them.” Can we see that even if we are not the blind who can now see and the lame who can now walk, when we hear about them, we are the poor who are being given good news? Can we see that this is good news even for us because no one exists as just a “me”? We exist as “we.” The blessings others have received are good news not for just a few but for all.

I am a 50-year-old priest, but the film that best captures my 2025 is K-Pop Demon Hunters. It is not just an animated movie with catchy songs; it is a profound Gospel lesson. The girl-group Huntrix, the pop singers who are also demon hunters, fall apart when they are separated. They needed to unite again. Spoiler alert: It is not just our heroines who are able to defeat the demons; everyone had to come together. In the final battle song, there is a subtle change from “I broke into a million pieces, and I can't go back” to “We broke into a million pieces….” Watch it here with captions enabled: 

I think victory was won when these lyrics were sung:

We're shattering the silence, we're rising, defiant
Shouting in the quiet, "You're not alone"
We listened to the demons, we let them get between us
But none of us are out here on our own
So we were cowards, so we were liars
So we're not heroes, we're still survivors
The dreamers, the fighters, no lying, I'm tired
But dive in the fire, and I'll be right here by your side

In our dark moments, when we cannot hear the good news, it may be because we are imprisoned in the “me.” Do we have friends on whom we can depend to bring our questions to Jesus when we cannot bring ourselves to pray anymore? Do we have friends who can show us that good is still happening in the world alongside our own difficulties? Do we have friends with whom we can admit, “We are cowards… we are not heroes, but we are still survivors”? And it is because of the “we.”

Your prayer assignment this week:

Recall your dark moments this past year. Then read the last part of our Gospel today starting with Matthew 11:7. I hope you find something strange in what Jesus says about John the Baptist. Remember again that John had just doubted Jesus. But instead of expressing disappointment, Jesus gives a testimony to John: He is a prophet. He is more than a prophet. He prepared the way. “Among those born of women, there has been none greater than John the Baptist.”

In our dark moments, burdened with doubt, blinded by our own difficulties, Jesus still sees the good in us. Today, the Third Sunday of Advent, is known as Gaudete Sunday or Rejoice Sunday. That Jesus sees us in the best light—isn’t this reason enough to rejoice? Jesus never abandons us. The joy comes not because everything is fine. The joy comes because we are not alone.

For bonus points:

Again, recall your dark moments this past year. Then read until the very end of Matthew 11, this chapter when we saw John the Baptist doubt because of the burden of his present situation. Trust me. You will be in for a surprise that is another reason for rejoicing!

Fr. Francis teaches Theology, Education and Scripture at both the Ateneo de Manila University and Loyola School of Theology. As a classroom teacher, he is first and foremost a student. As a professor, he sees himself primarily as a pastor.