The Gospel this Sunday, finds John the Baptist in prison; faithful, courageous, yet suffering. The one who proclaimed, “Prepare the way of the Lord,” now sends messengers to Jesus with a raw and honest question: “Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?” This is not the question of a weak man, but of a strong man tested in the dark. John is not abandoning faith; he is pressing deeper into it. Advent always begins there, in the tension between promise and fulfillment, between what we hoped for and where we stand.

I ask you, my brothers: What do you want from Advent?

What I want is freedom; the freedom to unite with a strong company of godly men who know who they are and whose they are. Men called to be deacons, husbands, fathers, and yes, heroes. Men willing to walk out of the tomb into the light together. Men who understand that their God-given strength is not for comfort, but for sacrifice; not for dominance, but for service; not for retreat, but for witness.

Jesus responds to John not with theory, but with reality: “The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news preached to them.” In other words, look at the fruit.  Where Christ is truly present, men rise. Character is restored. Courage is reborn. Mission is clarified.

Our Church, our nation, our communities suffer; suffer from the absence of such men. Cardinal Louis Pie named it plainly in 1871: an age of “un-manned men,” not because masculinity is evil, but because Christ has disappeared from the center. Where faith wilts, men wilt. Where Christ is obscured, men become shadows. There are no men where there is no character, no character where there are no principles, and no principles where there is no living faith.

Advent calls us back to first things. It calls us to reclaim conviction, to take a stand, to let Christ re-form us from the inside out. John the Baptist did not lose his greatness in prison; Jesus Himself tells us that among those born of women, none is greater. Why? Because John stood firm, even when the light felt distant, even when faith was costly. His life remained a signpost pointing to Another.

My brothers, this is where our responsibility sharpens. In a world confused about manhood and suspicious of sacrifice, we must double down as manly men of faith - not with bravado, but with courage; not with noise, but with fidelity; not with self-promotion, but with visible, joyful service. Our marriages, our fatherhood, our diaconal ministry, and our brotherhood must become unmistakable INTEGRATED signs that a noble call is still alive and worth giving one’s life to.

Men will not discern the call to the diaconate, or to marriage, or authentic Christian leadership, from brochures or programs alone. They will discern it by watching us. They will ask, often silently: Is this man free? Is he whole? Is he strong in faith? Is his life worth imitating? Advent reminds us that witness precedes words.

In Christ the Servant + Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam
Receive + Believe + Teach + Practice