Advent III

GOSPEL

(John the Baptist declares that he is not the Saviour. His task is to prepare the way for the Saviour who is already among the people.) 
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to St John (1:6-8,19-28)
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light. And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed, he did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” And he answered, “No.” They said to him then, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water; but among you stands one whom you do not know, even he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” This took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
This is the Gospel of the Lord

Sermon

Today is “Gaudete Sunday”. But in the middle of Advent why should we rejoice? We rejoice because we are soon to celebrate that the Son of God, Jesus the Christ, came to live among us as a human being and be one of us. “And the Word [who has the nature of God] became a human being and lived among us” (John 1:14). And further, we rejoice because the Lord brings such good news: “The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me for the Lord has anointed me.” Here Jesus clearly identifies himself with the anointed king who is the Messiah and Saviour of God’s people. And why has he come and why has he been sent? “He has sent me to bring good news to the poor, to bind up hearts that are broken; to proclaim liberty to captives, freedom to those in prison; to proclaim a year of grace from the Lord.”
The Scriptures were written at a time when poverty and suffering were the lot of the majority. Many were really rotting, often unjustly, in prisons. Then there were those who were physically handicapped – the blind, the lame and those afflicted with diseases like leprosy with its alienation and marginalization from ordinary society. In our high-tech society today the situation of hundreds of thousands of people is the same. For those who live in islands of abundance and prosperity, suffer from other forms of poverty, such as, social, emotional, intellectual, spiritual etc. There are other forms of captivity today like compulsions, obsessions, addictions, trapped in consumerism… We can also see around the blindness and deafness of those who can see no meaning in their lives inspite of all the plenty they pursue, and the dumbness of those who have nothing constructive or creative to say and the lameness of those who are socially and emotionally crippled.
If the Lord has really come to liberate us from all of this, then we surely have cause to rejoice. 
The Second Reading continues the theme of joy that comes to us through Jesus. “Be happy at all times” may seem a rather unreasonable demand. Yet, for the true Christian, happiness is the underlying experience of daily living, even if, now and then, there are painful problems to be dealt with. And, if I am not happy NOW, I never will be. A key to our enduring happiness is an unconditional openness to where God leads us and a readiness to speak out and act boldly in his name.
In this we have the example of John the Baptist who is the focus of the Gospel passage. We have here a clear assertion of the relationship between John the Baptist and Jesus. Jesus is the light and John is a witness to the light. What it says should be just as true of every baptised person as it is of John. For each one of us, by our baptism and our membership in Christ’s family, has been sent to give witness to the Light. As we prepare to celebrate Christmas and the coming of God into our lives through Jesus we need also to remind ourselves that we have been called to be the means to bring Jesus into other people’s lives. There are people who simply hate Christmas because it only increases their inner pain and deep sadness.
So there are many out in the cold and in the dark waiting for the warmth and light of Christ. They are waiting for us to shine the light of Christ on them and to turn their lives into experiences of joy, of wholeness and integrity. The joy of Jesus, the joy of Christmas can only be ours to the extent that we work with Jesus to bring that joy into the lives of others and celebrate a “Gaudete Sunday” everyday.