"Are you the one who is to come?” That’s the question John the Baptist’s disciples had for Jesus, but is it one you can ask yourself today?

I learned one valuable liturgical lesson living in the southern California desert for nine years: Deserts do bloom! It’s not a miracle but a fact of nature. A desert is geologically defined as a place that is very short on water, so some years spring comes and there is no bloom. You have to wait for the flowers. You have to be patient.

Jesus started talking to the crowd about John. “What did you expect when you went out to see him in the wild? A weekend camper? Hardly. . . . What then? A prophet? That’s right, a prophet! Probably the best prophet you’ll ever hear. He is the prophet that Malachi announced when he wrote, ‘I’m sending my prophet ahead of you, to make the road smooth for you.’

WHEN the French hermit and martyr Charles de Foucauld went into the Saharan desert in 1901, he sought to establish a place of “adoration and hospitality”: worship of God and service to the native Tuareg people. That’s one thing about the desert: You don’t go there to be alone.

Brothers and sisters, let us acknowledge our sins, and so prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries.

Unexpected things are going on here. Deserts are blooming. The usually weak become strong. Dormant senses come to life. Long-time exiles return. But there’s also something a little jarring. John the Baptist, once so confident he had The One in his midst, is now asking questions.

When John the Baptist sends his disciples to Jesus to ask if he is the Messiah, Jesus doesn’t give them a direct answer but suggests they look at what they see and evaluate for themselves: The blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised.

Patience is the companion of wisdom. —Saint Augustine