The Third Sunday
of Advent
(C)
Dear
brothers and sisters,
When
it comes to celebrations of great joy we generally put on the finest we have. Gentlemen
polish their shoes and don suits. Ladies put on their nicest dress and jewelry.
The one exception to this societal norm these days seems to be the celebration
of Christmas when instead ugly Christmas sweaters have curiously grown in
popularity over the past several years. What is it about an ugly sweater that
makes so many people want to wear them in a joyful manner? Is there not in them
a subtle mockery of the ugliness and disorder brought about by sin, an ugliness
and disorder which the only begotten Son of God comes to destroy? In a playful
way, the ugly Christmas sweater can remind us that “the one who has hope lives
differently.”[1]
Some
claim the hope of the Christian “is but ignorance” and founded only on
possibilities, but the hope of Christians is founded on no mere possibility,
but on a very great certainty.[2]
What is this certainty in which we have such great confidence? It is simply
this:
God is madly in
love with you. The God who is love, created you in his love, and has a plan for
your life. He invites you to share in his love and, even though you turned away
from him, he constantly seeks you, out of love, to restore you to himself. He is
so in love with you he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to die for you so that you
can be reunited with him. He wants to forgive you, and to heal you of whatever
wounds and burdens you carry. He wants a personal relationship with you and
wants you to follow him so you can be happy in this life and be with him
forever in Heaven.[3]
The
joyful hope of Christians is founded on the certainty of the Birth of Jesus
Christ at Bethlehem and of his glorious return at the end of time; it is
founded on the certainty that “the Lord is near” (Philippians 4:5). Does this hope
live in you?
It
is God himself who “is the foundation of hope: not any god, but the God who has
a human face and who has loved us to the end, each one of us and humanity in
its entirety.”[4] The
one who has hope – and not simply optimism – is the one possessed by God, whose
life is founded on union with Christ, who has baptized us “with the Holy Spirit
and fire” (Luke 3:16). They live lives of generosity, of honesty, and of humility,
all in imitation of Christ Jesus (cf. Luke 3:10-14).
Everyone
who lives this season of Advent well cannot help but notice and be almost overwhelmed
by the eager and increasing hopefulness of these days as we await the coming of
the Lord. This expectant hope produces within the soul a deep pocket of joy
seemingly ready to burst forth and overflow. It is for this reason that the readings
today are so marked by the themes of joy, rejoicing, and gladness.
The
prophet Zephaniah exclaims, “Shout for joy, O daughter Zion! Sing joyfully, O
Israel” (Zephaniah 3:14)! Isaiah calls us to “cry out with joy and gladness” and
Saint Paul tells us to “rejoice in the Lord always” (Isaiah 12:6; Philippians
4:4). Even the Collect, which collects
our individual prayers and raises them collectively before the throne of God,
prays that we might celebrate always “with solemn worship and glad thanksgiving.”[5]
What
is the cause of this joy, what is the reason for our rejoicing, if not the
certain knowledge that “the Lord,
your God, is in your midst, a mighty savior; he will rejoice over you with
gladness, and renew you in his love, he will sing joyfully because of you, as
one sings at festivals” (Zephaniah 3:17). This, brothers and sisters, is the
hope of Christians, founded on the certainty that Christ has come “to bring
glad tidings to the poor,” the good news of victory over sin and death through
his total giving of self that has won for us the forgiveness of sins (Isaiah
61:1). With the prophet Isaiah we can say, “My strength and my courage is the
Lord, and he has been my savior” (Isaiah 12:2).
This
same Lord who came among us so many centuries ago, who gives us courage and
strength by his presence among us even now, will also come in his glory to
judge the living and the dead. This realization gives the season of Advent a
profound sense of joyful hope and at the same time it gives it a penitential
character. It is, one might say, a spirit of joyful penance or of penitential
joy, for while we know that he is coming we also know that not all of us are
ready to receive him and to greet him befittingly when he comes.
This
is precisely why the Lord gives us these holy days to prepare for his coming
and to meet him in the Sacrament of Penance so that we might be reconciled with
him and with our brothers and sisters. This requires, first of all, an
awareness of the reality of our sins; to accept the good news of the Gospel, we
must also accept the bad news of our sinful condition: each of us is sinful and
has committed sin, whether great or small. We are all in need of God’s mercy.
Too
often today it is said, “I’m a good person. I haven’t stolen anything, killed
anyone, or committed adultery (which, today, is often untrue). I don’t have any
real sins,” so many people say. Rubbish! We have all sinned, we have all failed
to love God and to love neighbor fully, and so we are in need of the Lord’s mercy,
which he wishes to bestow upon us in the confessional. Let us, then, hasten
there that the words of Isaiah might be fulfilled in us: “With joy you will
draw water at the fountain of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3).
Many
will say that their sins are always the same and wonder about the point of
going to confession, whether it does any good at all. The Pope Emeritus
Benedict XVI once put it this way to a group of children:
It is true: Our
sins are always the same, but we clean our homes, our rooms, at least once a
week, even if the dirt is always the same; in order to live in cleanliness, in
order to start again. Otherwise, the dirt might not be seen but it builds up.
Something similar can be said about the soul, for me myself; If I never go to
confession, my soul is neglected and in the end I am pleased with myself and no
longer understand that I must always work hard to improve, that I must make
progress. And this cleansing of the soul which Jesus gives us in the sacrament
of confession helps us to make our consciences more alert, more open, and
hence, it also helps us to mature spiritually and as human persons.[6]
By
going to confession on a regular basis, even if confessing the same sins again
and again, the Lord changes what is ugly in us into beauty and brings order out
of chaos; we are strengthened with the Lord’s grace, and this is always a cause
of joy and gladness and a bolster of hope. While there is still time, let us
live differently; let us seek his mercy so that we might rejoice always in the
Lord, confident that he is near, and so celebrate the festival of his Birth in nine
days “with love and thanksgiving.”[7]
Amen!
[1] Pope Benedict XVI, Spe salvi, 2.
[2] J. R. R. Tolkien, The Return of the King: Being the Third Part
of the Lord of the Rings (Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company,
1994), 835.
[3] Edward Sri, Who Am I to Judge? Responding to Relativism with Logic and Love (San
Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2016), 87.
[4] Pope Benedict XVI, Spe salvi, 31.
[5] Collect, Third Sunday of Advent, Roman Missal.
[6] Pope Benedict XVI, Address to
First Communicants, 15 October 2009.
[7] Collect of the Day.
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