THE WORD IN ADVENT
December 15, 2019: Third Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 35: 1-6,10; James 5: 7-10; Matthew 11:2-11
Rejoice! Look, the Lord your God is coming... the advent commission today is to Wait for and Wait on the Reign of the Lord!
An expectant couple, a lover on the park bench, a child on the birthday eve, a starved person on a set table... these are vivid snapshots of the joy of waiting! There is a pain involved, but a pain that is part of a greater joy. There are myriads of reasons to be disturbed and be restless about, but they are all overwhelmed by the joy that resides beneath. That is the picture that the Church wants us to contemplate this Sunday: the Joy of Waiting, for and on the Reign.
An expectant couple, a lover on the park bench, a child on the birthday eve, a starved person on a set table... these are vivid snapshots of the joy of waiting! There is a pain involved, but a pain that is part of a greater joy. There are myriads of reasons to be disturbed and be restless about, but they are all overwhelmed by the joy that resides beneath. That is the picture that the Church wants us to contemplate this Sunday: the Joy of Waiting, for and on the Reign.
This Sunday is called the Gaudete Sunday (Gaudete in latin simply means 'Rejoice')... taking off from the entrance antiphon which invites us to REJOICE, because the salvation of the Lord is near. Note the colour of the vestments today...they are not merely the violet, but purple...to add the necessary element of joy to the waiting! A Christian waiting should be joyful, the liturgy reminds us today - and what are the marks of this joyful waiting?
The whole creation groans as with pangs of childbirth...for a peaceful, prosperous, perfect world. Every religion and every spirituality is a yearning towards that state of existence, called in various names. We believe it to be the Reign of God; "We are seeking God's Kingdom" reminds the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium(180) of Pope Francis. This waiting, this Christian waiting for the Reign of God is a joyful waiting, not a miserable waiting, not a servile waiting. That is why this Waiting cannot be only a waiting for the Reign, as if it is a passive inaction, totally depending on an external factor. No, it has to be also waiting on the Reign... yes, the Reign is here, the Lord is here and the more faithful we grow to the Reign, the more present it becomes. It has to be an active making present of the Reign, here and now! The Word today brings to our attention the marks of this kind of a waiting:
The first mark is the Assurance of Faith. The first reading is full of words like, gladness, joy, exultation, rejoicing, shouting, leaping, singing... all these words are used by Isaiah, when the people of Israel are still in Exile...but they know their liberation is imminent. What fills their hearts and their lives is faith - a joyful and total abandonment into the hands of God, one who creates and directs history. A total assurance that the Lord is for them; the Lord stands in favour of them and the Lord will lead them to the prosperity that they are waiting for.
Our life, to be truly Christian, to be truly worthy of the Reign, has to be based firmly on this assurance of faith, that the Lord is with us and the Lord is for us. When God is for us, who can be against us! When evil plans of the villainous powers arise and grow stronger, it is not a moment to be frightened and retract our voice; it is a moment to stand firm and raise it to the skies. That is the sign of faith, that we believe we can do everything in the Lord who is with us and strengthens us - the assurance of faith.
Our life, to be truly Christian, to be truly worthy of the Reign, has to be based firmly on this assurance of faith, that the Lord is with us and the Lord is for us. When God is for us, who can be against us! When evil plans of the villainous powers arise and grow stronger, it is not a moment to be frightened and retract our voice; it is a moment to stand firm and raise it to the skies. That is the sign of faith, that we believe we can do everything in the Lord who is with us and strengthens us - the assurance of faith.
The second mark of a joyful waiting is the Aspirations of Hope. The first reading, the responsorial psalm and the Gospel are filled with imageries of the lame walking, the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, the dumb speaking... the aspirations of a heart, the desire for a better world, the yearning for a bright tomorrow, the thirst for justice and truth, these are infallible signs of the Reign. That is what we are invited to hope for, and only that hope will thrust us into action, into doing our little bit, our essential part in making those dreams come true!
We need to be filled with that vision, to reach the promised land, each and every one of us hand in hand. Things will change, justice and righteousness will prevail, peace and joy will flower... we need to wait on the Reign - that is, promote the cause of the Reign. Keep speaking of justice, keep standing for righteousness, keep pushing the initiatives of peace, keep multiplying the occasions of true joy... we need to keep promoting the Reign, the dreams and the aspirations of hope.
We need to be filled with that vision, to reach the promised land, each and every one of us hand in hand. Things will change, justice and righteousness will prevail, peace and joy will flower... we need to wait on the Reign - that is, promote the cause of the Reign. Keep speaking of justice, keep standing for righteousness, keep pushing the initiatives of peace, keep multiplying the occasions of true joy... we need to keep promoting the Reign, the dreams and the aspirations of hope.
The third mark is Associations of Love. The second reading touches upon a crucial point: yes we wait, but in the meanwhile what do we do? how do we comport ourselves? There are various modes of waiting... angry and restless... anxious and nasty... irritated and tensed... But the joy of waiting for the Reign has to be a wait that is filled with a "prophetic patience", says St. James. An abundance of patience that cherishes every moment that is spent in waiting. A patience that is expressed in our loving rapport with every brother and sister.
Our relationships have to express to the world that we are people with a difference, we look for something that not everyone is looking for, that we are people who have our gaze fixed on the Lord and the Lord's Reign that everyone around seems beautiful and precious in our eyes! It has to tell that world that we are not only people who wait for the Reign, but we are people who wait on the Reign, that is those who serve the Reign with all our heart, through all our associations of love.
Our relationships have to express to the world that we are people with a difference, we look for something that not everyone is looking for, that we are people who have our gaze fixed on the Lord and the Lord's Reign that everyone around seems beautiful and precious in our eyes! It has to tell that world that we are not only people who wait for the Reign, but we are people who wait on the Reign, that is those who serve the Reign with all our heart, through all our associations of love.
We are waiting... we are waiting for the Reign... but the Reign is already here, the wait is to make it more and more visible, it is waiting on the Reign! Each of us has the responsibility, to make the Reign of God felt, here and now, through living with an abundance of assurance of faith, with limitless aspirations of hope and divine associations of love with each other. The joy of waiting for the Reign, has to radiate that joy to every one, everyday in every way.