He Came To Save

Third Sunday of Advent A-1

Entrance Antiphon Phil 4:4-5 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near.

Collect 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, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Isaiah 35:1-6a, 10; Psalm 146:6-10; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11

Now when John had heard in prison the works of Christ he sent two of his disciples to ask him, "Are you he who is to come, or are we to look for another?" Jesus answered, "Go and relate to John what you have heard and seen. The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, the poor have the gospel preached to them. Blessed is he who is not scandalized in me." And when they went their way, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: "What did you go out into the desert to see? a reed shaken with the wind? What did you go to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Behold those who are clothed in soft garments are in the houses of kings. But what went you out to see? a prophet? yes I tell you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written: Behold I send my angel before you, who shall prepare your way before you. Amen I say to you, there has not been born of woman a greater than John the Baptist: yet he that is the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." (Matthew 11:2-11)

He Came To Save If one were to ask a Zoroastrian what was Zarathustra’s mission in life, presumably the reply would be to teach the way of goodness and to enlighten men as to the issues that are connected with this. He was a great teacher of religion and his teaching gave rise to a religion. The prophets of the Old Testament — and John the Baptist who features in the New — taught the word of God and summoned the people to live accordingly. The followers of Mahomet claim that Mahomet is a prophet in the line of the Old Testament prophets (and Jesus) and is indeed the greatest of them — though, of course, the Christian would not accept this. Let us then ask the question, what was the mission of Jesus? He certainly was a Teacher, and indeed was the very greatest of them because his word, being the word of him who is God, was the word of God himself. But this was not the only mission of Jesus, and perhaps not his most important mission. Cardinal Newman in his Anglican writings maintained that a great deal of revealed moral teaching is accessible to the natural conscience. So Christ’s teaching as to what the good and moral life entails is not the only, nor the main mission that was entrusted to him. Christ came to redeem us from sin and to reconcile us with God. He came to restore our hopelessly broken relationship with God. He came to make us God’s friends, by inviting us into his own friendship. This redemption from sin and entry into the life of the holy God was Christ’s principal mission for mankind and it is expressed well in the words uttered by John the Baptist about him before he actually started his public work: There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The Atonement was Christ’s greatest work, a work no one else could possibly even begin to do. Zoroaster never claimed to take away the sins of the world, nor did Buddha, nor did Mahomet. Indeed, Islam denies original sin and the need man has for God to break the power of the sin that is in him. Christ is the only Saviour from sin.

It is as the Saviour of the world from sin that Christ is to be regarded as the Teacher of God’s infinite love and our model of holiness. By his death and resurrection and sending of the Holy Spirit he has made us partakers of the divine nature. This sets Christ’s mission apart from that of other great figures of history, such as St John the Baptist in our Gospel passage today. By our baptism we are born again to a new life, and all of this by the work of Jesus. It means that a most singular gift is given to the Christian. As our Lord tells his audience in the Gospel of today, “among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” (Matthew 11:2‑11). Sanctity does not come simply by our own energetic and ongoing attempt to live the Christian life worthily — even though this is essential. It comes from the grace of Christ and our cooperation with that grace, and this sanctifying grace was won for us by Christ on the cross. In Islam holiness is conceived as depending on our own efforts more or less alone — except in that God sustains us as he sustains all creatures. But the Christian knows that by his own persevering and self‑denying efforts alone he will never attain the goodness and holiness intended for him by God. Holiness is God’s gift and it is given in and through the presence and action of grace. This sanctifying and transforming grace was won for us by Christ and it is in order to make divine grace available to man that Christ came to die for our sins. Christ spent close to three years teaching the people and especially his own Apostles and disciples, but his principal work happened over the last three days. It was to suffer and die on the Cross for us and in rising from the dead to set in motion the conferral of the Holy Spirit on us his brethren. Grace is the purpose of Christ’s coming, and in that context he taught us to strive to be like him.

Let us strive to be clear in our minds as to why the Son of God became man. All too often the popular image of Christ is a gentle do‑gooder, half reality and half myth. He is thought of as a great teacher of the good life (which of course he was), but all too often the true point is missed. Christ is the one and only Saviour of mankind from sin and the source of man’s holiness both now and hereafter. He is the only way to the Father.

(E.J.Tyler)

Further reading: Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.456-460 (Why Did The Word Become Flesh?)

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