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Bishop's Homily for the Third Sunday of Advent

December 14, 2025

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Homily of Most Reverend Larry Silva, Bishop of Honolulu
[Annunciation Church, Waimea (with installation of pastor)]

We know that people who have an addiction to alcohol are often blind to the problem that everyone else around them can see clearly. We are aware that some young people do not trust their parents because they seem to be deaf to their real problems and desires. We know that some people are very talented, but they do not use their talents because somewhere along the line someone crippled them with harsh criticism. We are aware that some of our brothers and sisters walk about as the living dead because they are addicted to drugs or suffer severe psychoses. We know that millions of people in our world live in dire poverty, even though the world has all the resources needed to care for everyone.

As we recall all of these realities, we might wonder whether the prophecy of Isaiah has really been fulfilled in Jesus, who did give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, restoration of mobility to the lame, and raised the dead. Perhaps we come here again and again to renew our hope that, just as Jesus did these things so long ago, he might do them again for us today.

But if this is our thinking, we miss some very essential elements of what Jesus came to accomplish. It is no accident that his ministry was preceded by his Baptism in the River Jordan by John. The creature baptized the Creator. The one who called for repentance for himself and others baptized the one who needed no repentance but wanted to immerse himself in our struggle to change our lives and change our sinful world.

And as we celebrate this Guadete Sunday, this Sunday of Joy, we are challenged not just to believe that Jesus did all these wonderful things in the past, but that he accomplishes them even today through us who are baptized in his Name. What only God can accomplish because it is so monumental, he entrusts us to accomplish with him by immersing us in the very Name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As John the Baptist was touted by Jesus as the messenger who went before him to prepare the way and as the greatest among us born of women, he points out that even greater are the least in the kingdom of heaven.

And so, whether through agencies such as Catholic Charities or HOPE Services, we carry out the work of the living Jesus Christ, we also know how much our parishes do to open the eyes of the blind, unstop the ears of the deaf, and bring to life those who consider themselves dead. But, because we are baptized, immersed, soaked in the very Name of God, we, who might consider ourselves the least in the kingdom of heaven, can accomplish all of these things in our families, schools, neighborhoods and places of work, when we stay close to Jesus.

What Jesus accomplished when he walked the earth was the fulfillment of the ancient prophecy of Isaiah. But what the risen Jesus accomplishes today through his living Body, the Church, is no less impressive, if we allow our eyes to see and our ears to hear.

In Advent, we celebrate the fact that Jesus once came to fulfill this wonderful prophecy of Isaiah – and to remember that he is yet to come in glory, when all the work he began will be completed through us who are immersed in his love. This is why we are urged to joy today and always. Yes, there are still many who are blind, deaf, crippled, and poor – but we who are baptized into the kingdom of heaven are the way the risen Jesus continues to do his marvelous deeds. When the world laments so many very real problems, we still sing for joy, because we believe – we know – that as we allow ourselves to be more intimately united to Jesus in this most holy communion with him, he will continue to change the world’s sorrowful realities to reasons for exceeding joy!