Wednesday, December 7, 2011

12/11/2011 - Homily for 3rd Sunday Advent - Cycle B – John 1:6-8, 19-28


         As we started our Advent journey, we were told to be watchful and to prepare the way of the Lord in our lives.  Today, we  celebrate the 3rd Sunday in Advent, Guadete Sunday, from the Latin word for “rejoice.”  The 3rd candle on our Advent wreath that we light today is pink, representing the joy of this day.  In his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul advises us to “rejoice always” to “pray without ceasing.”  In fact, the one thing all the readings today have in common is that they bear joyful witness to what God has done for us as his people & what he’ll continue to do for us.  How is God calling us to implement a sense of joy in our daily lives of faith in order to prepare for the coming of the Lord? 
         When you come down to it, Advent is not about staying the way we’ve been in the past; it’s not about staying the way we are now.  Jesus came to make changes.  Jesus, the Son of God made incarnate, born as a baby in Bethlehem, is all about God coming into our world, changing our lives, and changing the very way we approach life.   
         Today's Gospel presents a conversation between the Jewish leaders & John the Baptist.  From what we know about John, we can imagine why these leaders are asking him so many questions.  Just who in the world are you, John the Baptist?  Who are you, coming out of the desert wilderness into our lives, eating wild honey & locusts? Who are you, criticizing Herod, our king, not worried about retribution or punishment?  Who is John the Baptist, this wild, crazy figure that so captures our imagination, bridging the Hebrew Scriptures with the New Testament, the culmination of what has been & the foreshadowing of what is to come?
John the Baptist comes to us today as a joyful witness.  He came not to bring his own personal message, but to give witness and to testify, to give testimony to the light of Christ.  Similar to the way a witness gave testimony in the ancient courts of law, John the Baptist stands up, gives testimony, and speaks the truth.  He refuses to make himself the center of attention.  Rather, he rejoices in his role as a witness to Jesus, the light of the world, a light that brings life to all.
         John's role as a joyful witness to Jesus makes him a great Advent figure: he prepares the way for Jesus and provides an example for us as modern Catholics.  One way to describe our vocation as Christians is by the term “witness.”  We are called to stand up and to say what we believe to be the truth about Jesus and about our faith.  We stand beside John the Baptist and many other New Testament followers of Jesus as we joyfully bear witness to what we believe about Jesus as the Word of God, the Son of God who became flesh & who dwelt among us. As witnesses of faith, we can and should “rejoice always,” as Paul advises us to do. 
         What, then, could keep of from rejoicing, if this is what we are called to do, particularly on this 3rd Sunday of Advent? Today's Gospel gives us an answer.  One reason why the Jewish authorities questioned John the Baptist so much & confronted him about his motives has to do with our human resistance to radical change.  The Jewish leaders craved stability & familiarity in their lives and in the world around them.  They loved their religious practices centered around traditional Temple worship, so they didn’t want Jesus or John the Baptist to change things.  Perhaps they were more deeply invested in the traditions themselves than in the way they truly experienced God in their religious practices, than the way that God was calling them to something new & radical.  With Jesus’ entrance into the world, they were being called to baptism in the Holy Spirit, to repentance for the forgiveness of sins, to follow a Messiah that had come to die for our salvation.  That is why John the Baptist was so threatening to them, why his message perhaps threatens us today.
         Keeping the status quo in our lives, resisting change & conversion: this is not what God is about.  Like the Judean priests & Levites, I think it is a part of our human nature to resist changes.  However, John the Baptist calls us to make straight the way of the Lord, announcing that the Lord is near, entreating us to wake up, to cleanse away our sins, to prepare ourselves for the One who will liberate us from our fear of change.  In his call for the Church of Thessalonica to rejoice always, Paul challenges us as to be open to change: to listen to where the Spirit is calling us, to heed the call of the prophets, to test what is brought before us, retaining the good, & refraining from the bad. 
         I think it is important for us to remember that during Advent, we have the Sacrament of Reconciliation to help us seek forgiveness for our sins from God, to look at ways we can change our lives. By receiving forgiveness in this sacrament, by mending our broken relationships with God and with others, we may be able to feel a new source of energy in our faith & a sense of healing that will prompt us to rejoice in our faith, to make straight the path for the Lord in our lives.  We’ll have the opportunity to participate in a service of reconciliation this Monday night at 6:00 pm.  Let us take advantage of this wonderful opportunity. 
         As we continue our Advent preparations for the coming of Jesus into the world, let us remember to rejoice, to allow the joy of this event to permeate our lives & the faith we witness to others.  

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