Radiating Christ

Gospel
Lk 3:10-18
The crowds asked John the Baptist,
“What should we do?”
He said to them in reply,
“Whoever has two cloaks
should share with the person who has none.
And whoever has food should do likewise.”
Even tax collectors came to be baptized and they said to him,
“Teacher, what should we do?”
He answered them,
“Stop collecting more than what is prescribed.”
Soldiers also asked him,
“And what is it that we should do?”
He told them,
“Do not practice extortion,
do not falsely accuse anyone,
and be satisfied with your wages.”

Now the people were filled with expectation,
and all were asking in their hearts
whether John might be the Christ.
John answered them all, saying,
“I am baptizing you with water,
but one mightier than I is coming.
I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor
and to gather the wheat into his barn,
but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Exhorting them in many other ways,
he preached good news to the people.

ST SAVIOUR SERMON

“a feeling of expectancy had grown among the people”

Today we have lit the pink candle on the Advent Wreath because it is Gaudete Sunday. The first two candles were purple, as will be the one next Sunday because the whole season is a penitential season – a time for self examination, penitence, and reconciliation as we prepare for Christmas. But today, briefly, a note of rejoicing breaks in as we experience a\ growing excitement and expectancy at the thought of the Lord “drawing near”. The Baptist preached the good news of the Lord’s coming as well as his message of repentance. As well as exhorting them, and us, to get our lives sorted according to God’s standards during these days he wants us to live in the hope and expectancy of Christ coming “with healing in his wings”.

This Advent, during this 250^th year of Handel’s death, it is not incongruous to hear the Hallelujan chorus ringing forth in many forms from the air waves. Last Sunday at 8.10 a.m. on BBC4 our archbishop Sentamu joined the Huddersfield Choral Society in an inspiring service built around his exposition of some of the scriptures on which the Messiah choruses are based. The twin themes of ‘repentance’ and ‘good news’ were both there.

Of course, there is such a thing as ‘penitential joy’. The deepest happiness comes from being at peace with God and at peace with one’s fellow man. A simple exercise in self examination is to translate the letters J-0-Y into ‘Jesus, first, others second, yourself last’ and to let the Holy Spirit show you when you have not thought or acted in this way since your last confession. And it is good that we are reminded by Fr John’s article in the parish magazine that the absence of a parish priest doesn’t mean we have any excuse for skipping our Advent confession this year as every priest, by his ordination, is obliged to help us if we ask him.

Here is how Cardinal Newman saw the fulfillment of that spirit of expectancy coming into a soul prepared for him. He titled his prayer ‘Radiating Christ’:

“Dear Jesus, flood my soul with your spirit and life. Penetrate and possess my being so utterly that my life may only be a radiance of yours. Let me praise you in the way you love best – by shining on those around me. Let me preach without preaching, not by words but by example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my heart bears for you.”

Come Lord Jesus, come quickly.