(Third Sunday of Advent (A): This homily was given on December 13, 1998 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I. by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Matthew 11: 2-11.)

"Total commitment to Christ: It's for everyone!"

The cover of this week's Sports Illustrated magazine caught my attention the other day when I happened to see it over at Gold's Gym . Randall Cunningham, the quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings, was pictured on the cover, and toward the bottom of the page the words "Born Again" were written in large, bold print. I thought to myself, "This sounds interesting," and I proceeded to read the article as I pedaled on the stationary bike.

Now for those among us who may not be pro football fans: Randall Cunningham was the quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles for many years, until he retired after the 1995 season. He wasn't planning ever to play again, but earlier this year the Vikings called him and said they'd like him to come out of retirement to play for them. Cunningham considered the request to be a sign from God, and so he agreed to join the team. And he has not regretted that decision. To put it mildly, the man has had a phenomenal year--as every Green Bay Packer fan like me will certainly attest. The Vikings have already annihilated the Packers twice this year, under Cunningham's leadership. Personally, I think he should have stayed retired!

But leaving aside my personal sentiments for a minute--here's one other important fact about Randall Cunningham: he's a professed Christian who isn't shy about advertising his faith to the world. And for that, I give him credit. As a Catholic, I may not agree with him on certain points of doctrine and theology, but I give the man credit for wanting to be a good, public witness for Jesus Christ. Now the author of this Sports Illustrated article alluded to Cunningham's religious faith several times. As I said a few moments ago, it was even hinted at in the title on the magazine cover: "Born Again." But one remark the author made really bothered me, not so much for what it affirmed as for what it denied. He said, "Born again Christians [like Cunningham] often speak of their desire to let Christ's 'light' shine through them." Now from the way it was written, the implication was that other Christians don't have this desire or shouldn't have this desire. I don't know if this author is a follower of Christ or not, but if he is I'd love to ask him, "Sir, don't you want the light of Jesus Christ--the light of his truth, the light of his love--to shine through you? You may not identify yourself as a 'born again Christian' (although everyone who's baptized has been 'born again'), but don't you want to radiate the presence of Jesus Christ in your daily life? Don't you want your commitment to Christ to influence everything you say and do? If not, then what is your religion all about? Is it just for Church on Sundays? If it is just for Church on Sundays, then it's not real Christianity!"

I mention this today because of the Gospel story we just heard from Matthew 11. We are told here that John the Baptist sent disciples to Jesus to ask him, "Are you 'He who is to come,' or do we look for another?" Now why did John ask such a question? Didn't he already know who Jesus was? Our Lord was his cousin; when Mary came to visit his mother Elizabeth at the Visitation John had leapt for joy in Elizabeth's womb. John had baptized Jesus in the Jordan; he had pointed Jesus out to some of his disciples and said, "Look, there is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." Had John forgotten all that? Why did he ask this question?

Well, there are two possible answers that scholars offer to this problem. The first is that John wasn't crystal clear about the kind of Messiah that Jesus was. At the baptism of our Lord, John had rightly predicted that the Messiah would manifest God's judgment to the world in a powerful way. Remember last week's Gospel text from Matthew 3? There we heard John say, "The one who will follow me [i.e. the Messiah] . . . will clear his threshing floor, and gather his grain into the barn, but the chaff he will burn in unquenchable fire." In other words, the Messiah will vindicate the just and punish the wicked. Perhaps John didn't think that Jesus was fulfilling this prophecy by the relatively gentle way he was acting in his ministry, so it's quite possible that John had begun to wonder: Did I get this right, or is there somebody else coming after my cousin?

The other possible answer as to why John sent these disciples to ask Jesus this question can be rendered as follows: John was a charismatic person. As such, he had many, many disciples--people who were putting their faith in him; people who were looking to him for spiritual leadership. But John was only the messenger--and he knew it. Jesus was the one people needed to put their faith in: "He [Jesus] must increase, I [John] must decrease." So John sent his disciples to the Lord so that Jesus could make clear to them that he was the one they should put their faith in.

Either of those answers is plausible. But regardless of whether John asked the question for his own benefit or the benefit of his disciples, one thing is absolutely certain: Jesus was very clear in his response. In effect he said, "My works testify to who I am." Jesus said, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: the blind recover their sight, cripples walk, lepers are cured, the deaf hear, dead men are raised to life, and the poor have the good news preached to them. Blest is the man who finds no stumbling block in me." Another way to phrase that last line would be, "Blest is the person who is RADICALLY committed to me and my Gospel. Blest is the person who allows my LIGHT to shine through him clearly."

I wonder what John said when his disciples carried this message back to him. If he had asked the question for his own benefit, he probably said, "That's all I need to know. Now my life belongs to my cousin Jesus; now my heart belongs to him totally." If he had asked the question for the benefit of his disciples, he probably said, "Now you've heard it from the man himself. He's the one you should be following, not me. So go--follow him, listen to him, obey him, give your lives to him totally and completely."

That, of course, should be the desire of everyone who bears the name "Christian." Which is what irked me so much about that one line in the Sports Illustrated article: it implied that being radically committed to Jesus, being a real light to the world is only for a small group of evangelical Protestants. Not true! First and foremost, that should be the desire and purpose of every Catholic in his or her life! Our Church teaches the fullness of God's revealed truth. As Catholics we are supposed to be living witnesses to this truth before the rest of the world!