Homily for 3d Sunday of Advent

3d Sunday of Advent

Dec. 13, 2020
Holy Name of Jesus, Valhalla, N.Y.

Introduction to Mass

In today’s liturgy 2 shifts take place.  1st, we shift almost completely from looking toward the 2d coming of Christ, so much stressed during the 1st 2 weeks of Advent.  St. Paul does mention it in the 2d reading.  Instead, we shift to expectation of Christ’s imminent appearance, primarily in his saving public ministry, but the coming feast of his Nativity also gets mention.  2d, our tone shifts to one of joy, of rejoicing, because the Lord is near, which is why Advent’s usual violet tone softens today into rose.

Homily

John 1: 6-8, 19-28

“John came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe thru him” (John 1: 1).

The Preaching of John the Baptist

Alessandro Allori

Note how many times the words joy and rejoice are used in today’s prayers and readings, so much that this 3d Sunday of Advent is called Gaudete Sunday, “Rejoice Sunday,” from the 1st word of the Entrance Antiphon in Latin.  In English, it’s “Rejoice in the Lord always.  I say it again, rejoice!”  In the Collect we spoke of “the joys of so great a salvation” and of celebrating “with solemn worship and glad rejoicing.”  The prophet Isaiah announced “glad tidings,” healing, liberty, growth, justice, and “hearty rejoicing.”  In the Psalm Response, from our Blessed Lady’s Magnificat, our souls rejoice in our God.  St. Paul exhorts us to “rejoice always.”

In the gospel passage, we interrupt this year of reading from St. Mark to take up, today, a text from St. John similar to last week’s from Mark but also notably different, to be followed in the coming weeks by the gospels of Jesus’ incarnation, birth, and infancy—the familiar Christmas gospels from St. Luke and St. Matthew.

St. John’s Gospel references John the Baptist as “the voice of one crying in the desert,” as Isaiah had prophesied, commanding us to “make straight the way of the Lord” (1:23).  That much is like Mark’s introduction to John the Baptist, which we heard last week.  The rest of today’s passage is quite different.

John the Evangelist introduces the Baptist as a witness “to the light” that is coming into the world to conquer darkness (1:5-6).  This, of course, is reason for joy even if John doesn’t use that word.  The gospel goes on to record John the Baptist’s testimony.

His testimony is given to “priests and Levites” whom the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem have sent to question him about his activity—his message and his baptizing.  Some Pharisees also come to question him.  So we’re introduced to those who will be the opponents of Jesus when he appears and undertakes his public ministry.  They ask John, “Who are you?” (1:19).

“Who are you?” is the fundamental gospel question.  The entire Gospel of John addresses that question—and so do the other 3 gospels, as when Jesus challenges the apostles:  “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” (Mark 8:27 ǀǀ).  The fundamental question isn’t who is John the Baptist, but who is Jesus.  John himself deflects the question by strongly stating that he is neither the Christ (the Messiah) nor the prophet Elijah returned to inaugurate the time of the Messiah nor the Prophet like Moses, a new lawgiver and redeemer.  John knows exactly who he is:  a voice, an announcer sent by God to get people ready for someone else, “the one coming after me,” one so exalted that John himself isn’t worthy even to untie his sandal strap (1:27)—the humblest job of a slave.

So the question is put to us who hear this gospel passage:  who is Jesus?  The answer we give to that question has to affect our hearts and souls, our manner of life.  If Jesus is just a prophet, just a holy man, just a wise man, then we can take him or leave him, select what we like from his teachings and discard the rest.  If he is the light of the world, the one sent into the world by God full of grace and truth (1:16-17), then he commands our total allegiance.  Will we put aside the works of darkness, the works of the Prince of Darkness, our sins, our malice, our evil thoughts and deeds?  our pride, avarice, sloth, lust, gluttony, quick tempers and nursing of grudges, rash judgment and gossip?  Will we walk with Jesus Christ in the light?

Besides the fundamental questions of the identity of John the Baptist and of the one whose way he’s preparing, our gospel passage emphasizes the word testimony, in Greek marturia, whence our word martyr, one who bears witness or gives testimony, in court or in some other fashion.  The word foreshadows John’s fate at the hands of the tetrarch Herod and his spiteful wife Herodias, whose adulterous marriage John condemned.  That was one way in which he bore witness to the light of Jesus Christ, the true light of the world—the light of truth from God.

Christianity adopted the word martyr for those who gave the ultimate testimony of their lives, who across the centuries have borne witness that Jesus Christ is Lord, who submitted to death rather than worship the Roman emperor or any government or ideology, who died in witness to human dignity, to the truth of marriage, and to virtues like purity and justice.

When we have answered the question, “Who is Jesus?” by affirming that he is the Christ, the Messiah, our Lord, then like John we’re bound to bear witness, to testify to the light, testify to the truth.  Our lives must proclaim that Jesus is Lord, that he, and he alone, is the way to eternal life.  Today we make our own the prayer of St. Paul:  “May God make [us] perfectly holy, and may [we] entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thes 5:23).