A Christmas card I received this week shows a little boy sitting on Santa’s lap. Santa asks, “Have you been good?”&nb= sp; The kid has a deer-in-the-headlights look on his face as he says, “Define good.” So= me people don’t give a straight answer to a question. Sometimes they ask another questio= n, or they give a long answer that sounds knowledgeable, but doesn’t really= respond to the question at hand. It&#= 8217;s a bit annoying. John the Bapt= ist hears two questions in today’s gospel, and he doesn’t deal with either of them directly.

The first question comes from the priests and the Levites= . It’s simple enough: “W= ho are you?” But John answers, “I am not the Christ.” Then it’s like they’re playing 20 questions with him. “OK. Are you Elijah?” No, he says, g= uess again. &#= 8220;The Prophet?” No, no= t him either. They say, “Answ= er the question, would you,” so he says, “I am the voice of one crying= out in the desert.” He never says, “My name is John.”

When the Pharisees ask the second question, “Why do= you baptize?” you expect John to answer “for the forgiveness of sins,” or “for a change of heart,” but he doesn’t.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Instead, he says, “I baptize= with water.” He doesn’= t say why he baptizes, he says how he baptizes, and that should be obvious. I mean, “with water” is how anyone baptizes. It’s a little like saying, “I use heat when I cook.” It doesn’t= tell you anything.

John ends the conversation with these mysterious words: “There is one among you whom you do not recognize.” To John, the problem is not with h= is answers, the problem is with their questions. These people don’t even know= what they’re looking for. He steers them <= span class=3DGramE>toward the answers to deeper questions they should be asking.

Advent plays this role for us. We are engaged in a very busy seas= on of the year, but Advent keeps wanting us to slow do= wn and remember what we should be asking. Who is this Jesus whose coming we await? What does he have to offer me? If he is coming as a savior, what = inside me needs to be saved? If my l= ife is not completely centered on Christ, where has it gone off course? Which things, which relationships,= which activities pull me away from Christ? Am I avoiding Christ by asking pointless questions to the wrong people? If I’m not gett= ing a straight answer to my questions, is it because of me, because I’m ask= ing the wrong questions?

John says, “There is one among you whom you do not recognize.” It is still true. We do not always recogn= ize Christ in the bothersome neighbor or the rude driver. We do not recognize him in people = with bad loans, lost jobs, or fumbled footballs. We also do not know what illness m= ight be hidden inside us, or what accident is waiting to happen. We do not recognize how close Chri= st is, that he is among us, even now.

As Christmas draws near, Advent has us ask who is Christ = for me? What= will his coming mean? Now is the s= eason to spend extra time in prayer to enter the mysterious presence of the one w= ith all the answers, if we would only ask the right questions.