Receive, Realise and Rejoice!
17th December, 2017: Third Sunday in Advent
Is 61: 1-2,10-11; 1 Thes 5: 16-24; Jn 1: 6-8; 19-28
We have begun the next phase in our journey to integrity, because the Lord is near! We have already initiated the novena in preparation for the great coming of the Lord and the Word today invites us to feel the shift of gears, as the call is already to rejoice! It is like, having journeyed long distance to meet a person and you are just a few yards away and you have already sighted the person coming towards you! You feel that joy, as if you have already embraced the person, but actually you have not yet! The feeling of 'already-and-not-yet'. That is the next phase of the journey that the Spirit of the Lord invites us to - to receive, to realise and to rejoice in the Lord!
Receiving the Spirit of the Lord is the first step towards an integrity in the Lord. Without the Spirit we cannot live in integrity. All the prophets, as Isaiah speaks of today, are people filled with the Spirit, John was a man of Spirit and Jesus himself was filled with the Spirit and proclaimed the very same words we hear from Isaiah today: the Spirit of the Lord is upon me! Each of us is filled with the Spirit - in every sacrament we receive, where the Lord encounters us in person, we receive the Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit cannot be merely a passive event - that it happens to me! I have to positively receive the Spirit and be filled with. It is an active yearning for the Spirit and a ready acceptance from the hands of the Lord.
Realising the Spirit's promptings is the next crucial step in the journey. When Isaiah, or any other prophets, or John, or Jesus, was filled with the Spirit, they immediate felt the call. I am called to give sight to the blind, to release the captives and announce the good news to the poor and tell them that the day of the Lord is here, to assured the Lord is near. I have to realise the call that I have, a call always for the other - I am not filled with the Spirit to perform magic shows on grand stages and massive gatherings, I am not filled with the Spirit to make a living for myself and get people be astounded about me... I need to realise that I have received the Spirit and I have received the Spirit for others, for those who are in need, those who are suffering, those who are downtrodden, those who are oppressed, those who find themselves helpless! I have to realise that I have a mission and that is a crucial step towards integrity - realising my purpose!
Responding to the call that I have received in the Spirit, is the fulfillment of my journey to integrity. When I begin to respond there will be people who appreciate me and be grateful to me. But there will be more who will question me, oppose me, criticise me, find fault with me, put me down and try to tear me into nothing. Look at the prophets, look at John in the Gospel, look at Jesus himself... they responded and they were taken to task. But because they were persons of integrity, neither did they desert the Spirit who called nor did they slacken before the world which opposed them! They responded with their entire life, that is the sign of Integrity - to respond with your entire life! Nothing else mattered to them, not even their life, when it came to responding to the call that they received and realised!
Let us gear up, push ahead, stay focused in this journey to integrity. Let us receive the Spirit of the Lord, Realise the call that the Spirit brings and Respond with our entire life. The Lord's Spirit is here and the Lord is near!
We have begun the next phase in our journey to integrity, because the Lord is near! We have already initiated the novena in preparation for the great coming of the Lord and the Word today invites us to feel the shift of gears, as the call is already to rejoice! It is like, having journeyed long distance to meet a person and you are just a few yards away and you have already sighted the person coming towards you! You feel that joy, as if you have already embraced the person, but actually you have not yet! The feeling of 'already-and-not-yet'. That is the next phase of the journey that the Spirit of the Lord invites us to - to receive, to realise and to rejoice in the Lord!
Receiving the Spirit of the Lord is the first step towards an integrity in the Lord. Without the Spirit we cannot live in integrity. All the prophets, as Isaiah speaks of today, are people filled with the Spirit, John was a man of Spirit and Jesus himself was filled with the Spirit and proclaimed the very same words we hear from Isaiah today: the Spirit of the Lord is upon me! Each of us is filled with the Spirit - in every sacrament we receive, where the Lord encounters us in person, we receive the Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit cannot be merely a passive event - that it happens to me! I have to positively receive the Spirit and be filled with. It is an active yearning for the Spirit and a ready acceptance from the hands of the Lord.
Realising the Spirit's promptings is the next crucial step in the journey. When Isaiah, or any other prophets, or John, or Jesus, was filled with the Spirit, they immediate felt the call. I am called to give sight to the blind, to release the captives and announce the good news to the poor and tell them that the day of the Lord is here, to assured the Lord is near. I have to realise the call that I have, a call always for the other - I am not filled with the Spirit to perform magic shows on grand stages and massive gatherings, I am not filled with the Spirit to make a living for myself and get people be astounded about me... I need to realise that I have received the Spirit and I have received the Spirit for others, for those who are in need, those who are suffering, those who are downtrodden, those who are oppressed, those who find themselves helpless! I have to realise that I have a mission and that is a crucial step towards integrity - realising my purpose!
Responding to the call that I have received in the Spirit, is the fulfillment of my journey to integrity. When I begin to respond there will be people who appreciate me and be grateful to me. But there will be more who will question me, oppose me, criticise me, find fault with me, put me down and try to tear me into nothing. Look at the prophets, look at John in the Gospel, look at Jesus himself... they responded and they were taken to task. But because they were persons of integrity, neither did they desert the Spirit who called nor did they slacken before the world which opposed them! They responded with their entire life, that is the sign of Integrity - to respond with your entire life! Nothing else mattered to them, not even their life, when it came to responding to the call that they received and realised!
Let us gear up, push ahead, stay focused in this journey to integrity. Let us receive the Spirit of the Lord, Realise the call that the Spirit brings and Respond with our entire life. The Lord's Spirit is here and the Lord is near!