Luke 3: 10 - 18
The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121524.cfm
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O God, who see how your people
faithfully await the feast of the Lord's Nativity,
enable us, we pray, to attain the joys of so great a salvation
and to celebrate them always with solemn
worship and glad rejoicing.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
(Collect of Mass)
If you’ve ever found yourself having
to deal with the sadness of another person, we struggle to find words of
comfort. It may be a sudden health crisis, the death of a loved one, the loss
of employment at a critical time or just a general sense of disorientation in
the life of another. Or it may well be
our own sadness after the departure of a loved one and the new normal that we
initially find difficult. Sometimes, in fact often, in times of crisis the best
response we may have is to simply say little and to stand with another, to
support them and to be present to them to show your solidarity. The grieving process takes time to work
through. If we’ve had a similar experience in our own lives, it may be helpful
to share your empathy but in the end we all grieve differently, and one should
never rush the process.
In a spirit of optimism, however, our
readings on this third Sunday of Advent nearly command us to “Rejoice!” The
prophet Zephaniah speaks to a people who have gone through the destruction of
their country and exile in a foreign land.
They are despondent and feel that God has rejected and abandoned them
due to their sin. Their beloved city of
Jerusalem has been destroyed and they are now exiled to the land of Babylon.
They are indeed a grieving people.
Zephaniah encourages them to “Shout
for joy” and to “. . . be glad and rejoice with all your heart.” Why would he
say such a thing rather than simply sympathize with them? Because it is God who
will come and be present with the people and his presence will be salvation and
life giving: “The Lord your God, is in your midst, a mighty Savior.” He had not abandoned them but allowed this so
they might be purified and reflect on the true spirit of the original covenant.
Due to God’s intervention in a time
of great crisis, the people should rejoice.
Now this was the additional hope of the chosen people. That at some time in history God will finally
intervene in a definitive and final way on their behalf. Even the liturgical color of rose may be used
this weekend to emphasize both joy and expectation. But when will that time
be? The answer to that question is found
in our Gospel.
After centuries of hope and promise in the midst of
what seemed like destruction, unfaithfulness, and abandonment a prophet to
complete all prophets appears in the desert and calls people to repentance and
to see that now is the time for their deliverance. We hear this Sunday once again from John the
Baptist who now responds to the questions of the varied crowds around him. They come to ask: “What should I do?”
John’s response is amazingly practical. We have an insight into how people of the
time lived. John encourages his crowd to
be generous, to share a portion of their food and clothing with those in need;
He encourages the toll (tax) collectors to be honest and not squeeze more money
from the people than is “prescribed.” Even soldiers, unexpectedly moved to
conversion, are told by John stop bullying people and to not be greedy and
abuse their power and position. In other
words, John encourages the varied crowd to return to the moral code of the
sacred Torah, the law of God given centuries before. In this way of behavior and morality they can
be ready to meet the Savior.
Despite John’s “tell is like it is”
confrontation with the crowd, they love the message and they begin to question
whether John himself may be the Messiah.
Even after Jesus’ public appearance, John still had his followers, among
who were the first of Jesus’ disciples, for example the apostle Andrew, brother
of Simon Peter. John remains steadfast that he is not the One. Someone
“mightier than I is coming” he states definitively.
The mark of a Christian is his
loyalty to Christ. Jesus was far more
than just another teacher or wise man we follow. Jesus is God made flesh and bones, the
salvation of humanity sent by the Father in heaven; he is Lord of our lives who
was enfleshed among us and who died and rose from the dead.
No other figure in history has ever
made such claims. Therefore, John’s statement about the Holy Spirit and fire is
a reference to the grace of the Spirit (symbolized as fire at Pentecost) which
cleanses in baptism and cleans out the “chaff.”
In Christ we find a new beginning and a renewal and rebirth of all human
history. To know this is cause for joy
and rejoicing. Our God has given us a
way out in the forgiveness of sin and a moral code to follow from the mind and
heart of God.
Our
moral and ethical behavior, then, reflects the gift that Christ is to humanity.
His teaching and morality provide for the world an alternative to a life lived
in darkness. Christ brings light, hope
and love to the world in a way that this world alone cannot sustain. This is the good news which John preached and
which we need to remind ourselves so “Rejoice!” Despite all this country has
been through on the political scene we still have cause for rejoicing in the
Lord.
The world today, which still sees
greed, abuse of power, immorality, rampant individualism, unrestrained choice
and subjective morality. We need to hear this and to likewise clean away those
obstacles that blind us from knowing God in our life.
Isn’t that our preparation for
Christmas? To clean away the roadblocks that prevent us from running toward the
Savior and from him reaching us. It
might be our sin, our greed, our pride, our need to forgive and reconcile with
another or whatever is keeping us from welcoming Christ the Lord and Savior and
becoming a better disciple of the Lord on to the new year.
So, in the words of Paul the great apostle to the Gentiles at this point in our Advent journey:
“Rejoice in
the Lord always . . . the Lord is near.”
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