Homily for 3d Sunday of Advent

Homily for the
3rd Sunday of Advent
Dec. 12, 1993
Is 61: 1-2, 10-11
1 Thess 5: 16-24
John 1: 6-8, 19-28
St. Agnes, Eight Mile Rock, Grand Bahama Is.
St. Vincent de Paul, Hunters, GBI

Presenting an old homily because I don't have a new one for today.

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the Lord” (Is 61: 1-2).

Do the 1st 2 verses of Isaiah 61 sound familiar?  According to Luke 4, Jesus began his public ministry in the synagogue of Nazareth by reading those same verses and applying them to himself: “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing” (v. 21).

When the ancient Jewish prophet uttered those 2 verses, he was perhaps announcing his own prophetic mission to the dispirited people who had returned from the Babylonian captivity and hoped for the rebuilding of their glorious capital city and its holy temple.

Obviously, the Church, by placing it in our liturgy for the 3rd Sunday of Advent, has Jesus in mind.  Not only do we have in mind Jesus’ own use of the passage in the Nazareth synagogue, but also note its underlying theme of joy.  That underlying theme becomes more explicit in the rest of the reading, taken from 2 other verses of the same ch. 61: “I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul” (v. 10).  The joyous theme continues in the psalm response, taken from Mary’s hymn of praise: “My soul glorifies the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 1:46-47); and in the 2nd reading, from 1 Thess: “Rejoice always, never cease praying, render constant thanks: such us God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (vv. 16-18).

Unfortunately, my Advent picture doesn't have 3 candles lit.

We see that rose-colored candle on the Advent wreath, which we lit this morning; and some of you can see the rose-colored veil over the chalice.  Those of us of a certain age, including me, remember when the priest wore a complete set of rose vestments on the 3rd Sunday in Advent—which we may still do if we choose and if we can find the vestments.  (The CCD children had a good laugh yesterday a.m. when I showed them our old rose chasuble, which I found in the vestment closet.  But they agreed I’d better not wear it.)

Well, that rose color was to break the somber violet of Advent, and it went with the theme of rejoicing for this Sunday, the 3rd of Advent.  In fact, the 3rd Sunday of Advent was called in the old liturgy Gaudete Sunday, using the Latin word for “Rejoice,” from the words of St. Paul with which the Mass used to open that day.

Why rejoice?  Because the Lord’s coming is near.  The “year of favor from the Lord and a day of vindication by our God” is at hand.  Advent is almost over and soon we’ll be celebrating our Savior’s birth and our redemption.

The words which Isaiah put into the mouth of the Jewish people now become our words too:  “I rejoice heartily in the Lord: in my God is the joy of my soul.  For he has clothed me with a robe of salvation and wrapped me in a mantle of justice.”

The Jewish people looked for salvation and justice from God for a thousand years, their expectation building and intensifying.  So when John the Baptist appeared along the Jordan River, preaching powerfully—not afraid even to take on the Sadducees or King Herod—and demanding repentance for all, they wondered whether John might be the Messiah, or at least Elijah or the prophet like Moses who were supposed to precede the Messiah’s appearance.

John, as we heard, denied being any of them.  He was only a voice, a baptizer in water, the message, not a voice; the baptizer in the Spirit; the way, not the opener.

The much greater one is already among us, brothers.  The much greater one is already here, sisters.  Most of the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the courtiers of King Herod and the soldiers of the Roman occupiers did not recognize him when he came.  Not that he is here, do we recognize him?

If we do recognize him, then, yes, we can rejoice on Christmas day and every day that we live in his presence, “whole and entire, spirit, soul, and body, irreproachable” (1 Thess 5:23).  If we do not recognize him, no amount of Christmas presents, no pile of Christmas cards, no Christmas bonus, no Christmas turkey, no nothing can give us grounds to rejoice; for there is no ground under our feet.

During the parish mission, many of us recognized Jesus and turned to him, honored his mother, rejected our sinful ways.  There is still time.  There is still time before Christmas to turn away from sin and turn toward the one whose sandals John was unworthy to loosen.  There is still time before “the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess 5:23) to judge the living and the dead, to turn to him and make our baptism in the Holy Spirit more than an empty rite, to make it a rite of salvation because we continue to repent.  There is still time to get onto solid ground.

Does turning to Jesus make us perfect?  We all know it doesn’t.  The devil surely likes to tempt us with discouragement when we fall again; he doesn’t want us to repent and get up.  But Paul’s prayer in 1 Thess is not meaningless: “May God of peace make you perfect in holiness.  He who calls you is faithful, and he will accomplish it (5:23-24).  If we keep our faces turned toward Jesus, if we keep our hands in his hand, then he will gradually do his work in us.  So, brothers and sisters, “rejoice always, never cease praying, render constant thanks; such is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”