A Homily for Friday of the First Week of Advent
Friday, December 5, 2025
Prince of Peace Catholic Church – 8:00 Mass
Isaiah 29:17-24; Psalm 27:1, 4, 13-14; Matthew 9:27-31
Audio Recording
As we move through this first week of Advent, we are invited to acknowledge the darkness so that we might better appreciate the Light. In the physical world, the days are growing shorter, and the shadows are lengthening. But in the spiritual life, today’s readings speak of a different kind of darkness — and a very specific kind of hope.
In the Gospel, we see this hope walking among us. Two blind men follow Jesus, crying out, “Son of David, have pity on us!” It is easy to read this as merely a historical miracle. Yet, if we look deeper, we see that their physical condition serves as a powerful metaphor for our own spiritual reality. In the ancient world, blindness often led to marginalization; it cut a person off from the community. Spiritual blindness does the same thing to us today. It isolates us and cuts us off from the fullness of life in God.
Advent is a season of preparation, which means it’s a season of honesty — honesty with ourselves about what we are holding on to that is preventing us from entering more deeply into the life of joy and freedom God is calling us to.
Advent is a time when we are called to look honestly at our spiritual blindness as we prepare for the coming of Our Lord. The Prophet Isaiah tells us in the first reading that the time is coming when the “tyrant” will be no more and the “scoffer” will cease. We must ask ourselves: Are there inner tyrants we are still serving?
Perhaps we are blind to the “tyrant” of an addiction or a recurring sin that has its firm grip on us. Perhaps, as Isaiah puts it, we have become the “scoffer” — blind to the harm we cause by gossiping, finding fault, or “ensnaring” others with our words
Unlike physical blindness, this spiritual blindness is often voluntary — we close our eyes to it because the light of truth is just too uncomfortable. We choose to remain in our sins, justifying them because we’ve become comfortable in the darkness.
But notice the persistence of the blind men in the Gospel. They didn’t just sit by the road; they followed Him. They cried out. They were desperate to see the light. Do we have that same desperation for growing in holiness this Advent?
Jesus then asks them a crucial question: “Do you believe that I can do this?” He didn’t ask if they thought He was a nice teacher. He asked if they believed He had the power to change their reality.
This is the same question He puts to us today regarding our sins. Do you believe I can fix this? Do you believe I can heal this anger, this addiction, this apathy? If we answer “Yes, Lord,” then we must follow through with the action of the blind men: we must cry out for mercy and ask God to increase our faith.
So as we prepare for the coming of Christ, let’s not remain in the darkness of our habitual sins. This Advent let’s identify the one area of our lives where we most need healing and courageously cry out to the Lord with the trusting prayer of today’s Gospel: “Son of David, have pity on me.” If we truly believe He can heal us, He will surely do so.
Jesus, I trust in You!