Homily for the Third Sunday of Advent

READINGS:

First Reading: Isaiah 61:1-2a, 10-11

Responsorial Psalm: Luke 1:46-48, 49-50, 53-54

Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

Gospel: John 1:6-8, 19-28

FOCUS: How are we preparing to celebrate the imminent coming of Christ? 

FUNCTION: Celebrate Christ’s imminent coming among us with great rejoicing.

            Things are a little different on this Third Sunday of Advent, also known as “Gaudete Sunday.”  “Gaudate” is a Latin word that means “rejoice,” and is taken from the entrance antiphon for today’s Mass: “Rejoice in the Lord always.  I shall say it again: rejoice!  The Lord is near” (Philippians 4:5, 5b).  The Latin translation is “Gaudete in Domino semper.”       

          Today, the liturgical colors also switch from violet to rose.  This rose color only gets used on two Sundays of the year: on this Third Sunday of Advent, aka “Gaudete Sunday,” and on the Fourth Sunday of Lent, aka “Laetare Sunday,” another Latin word which also means “rejoice.”  In both seasons, the Church celebrates a unique Sunday to rejoice in the nearness of the coming celebrations: during Advent, the coming of Christmas, and during Lent, the coming of Easter.  We’re more than half-way through the Advent season, and the Church is rejoicing in the nearness of the coming Christmas season.  The time to celebrate the birth of Christ is not yet here, but is very close.  And for that reason, we rejoice.

          Advent has been a good opportunity for us to make an examination of conscience regarding our spiritual readiness to celebrate the birth of Christ.  Do we have our priorities in order?  Are we praying like we should?  Have we taken the opportunity to receive God’s mercy in the sacrament of Reconciliation?  Have we trained our eyes to recognize the ways in which Christ comes to us?  Have we spiritually prepared ourselves to celebrate Christmas?  These are good questions for us to ask ourselves during the Advent season.  We only celebrate Christmas once a year and we want to celebrate such a great occasion by living as we should.  And so we have our present Advent season to prepare our hearts so that we might worthily celebrate the birth of Christ.

          On this Sunday, we rejoice that Christ is coming soon.  But maybe we shouldn’t let up on the Advent examination of conscience too much.  The Gospel gives us a great witness and messenger in the person and ministry of Saint John the Baptist.  One thing we can appreciate about the Baptist was his powerful witness to Christ: “A man named John was sent from God.  He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.  He was not the light, but came to testify to the light.” 

          That’s great, but what is testimony, and does it mean to testify?  The first thing we might think of is courtroom testimony.  TV courtroom dramas like “Law and Order” come to mind.  A witness takes the stand, swears an oath, and then answers questions from the prosecution and the defense.  Witnesses are put under oath and promise to tell “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”  They report on what they personally experienced, their area of expertise, or what they believe about a given person or subject.  The whole point of having a witness testify or give their testimony is to bolster the case of either the defense or the prosecution.  Witness testimonies are meant add credibility to law cases and help jurors decide either for or against the defendant.  And as we know, sometimes it’s the testimony of witnesses that can either make or break the case.   

          Like a witness in a courtroom, Saint John the Baptist came as a prophet to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus the Christ.  He came to testify to Christ the Light, helping people to believe that God’s promised Messiah was coming soon.  His goal and mission was to prepare people to believe in Jesus as the Savior who would lead Israel and the whole world to salvation.  Saint John the Baptist was a great witness: he testified to Jesus as the fulfillment of the ancient prophecy about the Christ, the Son of David, the King who was to come.

          Answering the Pharisees, Saint John the Baptist said, “I baptize with water; but there is one among you whom you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.”  There’s one part that really gets me: “…there is one among you whom you do not recognize…”  Unfortunately, the Pharisees didn’t recognize the Christ living among them in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.  Apparently they didn’t think that a lowly babe lying in a manger, the supposed Son of a carpenter, could be designated by God as the world’s Lord and Savior.  And so when Jesus began His ministry of preaching and teaching, they were hesitant to believe in Him as God’s promised Messiah.

          Saint John the Baptist makes an excellent point.  Have we trained our eyes to recognize the presence of Christ among us?  Sometimes we see Christ quite clearly with eyes of faith, and sometimes we fail to recognize Him in our midst.  Have we been willing to share with others our testimony about Christ the light so that people who do not know Jesus as the Christ might come to faith?  Or have we been unwilling to share the good news of His birth among us out of fear or a desire to be “politically correct”?

          In the second reading, we heard St. Paul say, “Rejoice always.  Pray without ceasing.  In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.  (…)  May the God of peace make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  That’s the best advice and the best prayer that Saint Paul could offer us on this Gaudete Sunday, in which we are urged to rejoice in the nearness of Christ’s coming.  

          The Lord is coming, and He is very near!  This is good news, the kind of news we cannot keep to ourselves!  And so we rejoice, we pray, and we continue to prepare our hearts for His coming.  And like Saint John the Baptist in the Gospel, we must not be afraid to testify to Christ and to claim our spiritual heritage as Christians, as Catholics. 

          And likewise, we must not allow the sacred event of Christmas to be made into another secular holiday, devoid of its intrinsic Christian meaning.  As the popular saying goes, “Jesus is the reason for the season!”  We know that there would be no Christmas without Jesus the Christ, our Lord and our Savior. 

          We have exactly 14 days of the Advent season left until we celebrate the birth of Christ beginning on Christmas Eve.  Are you prepared?  Is your heart ready to celebrate the birth of the Savior, the Son of God and Son of Mary?  Don’t let this important time of spiritual preparation pass you by.  Today, let us rejoice, for the Savior comes!                    

Homily for the Second Sunday of Advent

READINGS:

First Reading: Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11

Responsorial Psalm: Ps. 89:9-10, 11-12, 13-14

Second Reading: 2 Peter 3:8-14

Gospel: Mark 1:1-8

FOCUS: Prepare the way of the Lord in your life through the sacrament of Reconciliation.

FUNCTION: Make an Advent examination of conscience in preparation for Christ’s coming. 

            Recently, I was able to see the new movie, The Way, starring Martin Sheen and his son, Emilio Estevez.  Thomas Avery (Martin Sheen’s character) is an eye doctor who has a good practice, but is rather estranged from his son, Daniel Avery (Emilio Estevez’s character).  They each have different views about the way they’re living their life.  Daniel feels the need to go out and see the world, while Tom, his father, is content staying at home and working as an eye doctor. 

          Without giving away the rest of the movie (because I encourage you to go see it for yourself!), the movie follows the dynamics of Thomas’ journey (and that of his traveling companions) along the famous route known as “El Camino de Santiago,” aka, the Way of Saint James, a journey that often starts in the northern part of France and continues to the northern part of Spain, with the ultimate destination for many pilgrims being the Cathedral of Santiago de Compestela, where the body of Saint James the Apostle is believed to be buried.  The film is a moving story of the human struggle to find healing and meaning in the midst of personal brokenness.

            The Camino itself is a test of endurance and strength, as it often demands long hours and miles of hiking and is physically, emotionally, and spiritually demanding.  It is a popular pilgrimage route that takes pilgrims through many interesting and scenic places in France and Spain.  Pilgrims make the Camino de Santiago for many different reasons: some make the Camino for health reasons, some for religious reasons, and some for simply personal reasons.  The Camino is challenging, but it is ultimately rewarding.  And the challenge, no doubt, is what makes it rewarding. 

          What’s this talk about the Camino de Santiago got to do with the readings we heard this weekend?  The answer is found in the Gospel we just heard, in which the words of the prophet Isaiah which are often put on the lips of Saint John the Baptist: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight His paths.”  Obviously, Saint John the Baptist was a polarizing figure.  On the one hand, he stood in the tradition of the great prophets of old, who announced the will and the words of the Lord.  On the other hand, he made people very uncomfortable because he didn’t soften his message about the need for repentance.  Of course, in St. John’s day, it was not “politically correct” to tell people that they were sinners in need of repentance.  And, of course, it’s not “politically correct” to tell people the same message today.

          So, I hope you’ll forgive me, but I don’t plan on being “politically correct” today either.  My dear brothers and sisters, we, too, are sinners, and we, too, are in need of repentance.  Saint John the Baptist had a powerful message: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight His paths.”  How are we preparing the way of the Lord in our lives?  Like the people in the new movie, The Way, we, too, are imperfect and broken, sinners in need of salvation. 

          Sometimes we fall into the seven deadly sins.  We get prideful or vain and begin to think more of ourselves than we should.  We can become envious of the good things that others have.  We can easily get angry or wrathful over the things people say or do to us.  Sometimes we can become gluttons in our desire for food or drink or other goods.  We’re all too familiar with a greedy desire to acquire more and more material goods.  We know how it feels to become apathetic and uncaring and generally slothful about the things we know we should be doing.  And we’re familiar with the lust that rises up in us for certain persons or things.  These are the seven deadly sins.  And they’re called “deadly” because they lead to the death of the soul; they are like prisons out of which it can be difficult to escape, if not aided by God’s grace.

          But with God’s grace, we can overcome these seven deadly sins with what we might call the seven lively virtues.  We can overcome pride when we realize that there’s nothing that we have that we’ve not received, and thus grow in the virtue of humility.  We can overcome envy when we learn to be kind to others and realize that God has given all of us many gifts and blessings.  We can overcome anger or wrath by praying for and practicing the virtue of patience.  We can overcome gluttony by practicing the lively virtue of temperance, and using all good things in moderation.  We can overcome the apathy of sloth by being diligent about doing those things we know we should, even when we don’t feel like doing them.  We can overcome the power of greed in our lives by donating to charity and giving to others when they come looking to us for help.  And we can overcome the desire of lust by praying for and practicing chastity of body, mind, and heart in all of our relationships.  It’s these seven lively virtues that are able to overcome and conquer the seven deadly sins. 

          So how can we prepare the way of the Lord in our lives?  One thing we can do is go often to the sacrament of Reconciliation.  Coming up next weekend, we’ll have our first communal penance service here at the Basilica at 4 p.m.  It will be an excellent opportunity to overcome the seven deadly sins and to pray for an increase of the seven lively virtues.  If we think, “Everything’s fine; I’m OK, you’re OK,” we’re deceiving ourselves!  We need to be honest: Everything’s not fine, and I’m not OK, and you’re not OK.  If everything was just “hunky dory,” we wouldn’t need a Savior and God wouldn’t have sent us one.  But we do, and so God did: His name is Jesus Christ, and He is our Lord and Savior, who has come to save us from the sin in our hearts that threatens to eat us alive.

          One of the best ways that we can “Prepare the way of the Lord” this Advent is to repent of our sins and ask God for His mercy and forgiveness.  Going to the sacrament of Reconciliation is one of the best things we can do, and it helps us stay spiritually healthy and strong.  It helps us grow in humility, which also helps us overcome the principle deadly sin of pride.

          So do not be afraid!  God’s mercy is waiting!  His forgiveness is available for you to receive!  He holds nothing back.  His mercy is like a vast ocean, and His forgiveness reaches to the deepest depth and ascends to the highest height.  His power and love knows no bounds.  There is no sin He can’t forgive and no obstacle His grace can’t help you overcome.

          All of us this Advent are traveling along the way, much like the pilgrims who travel on the Camino de Santiago.  It’s a challenging way, but ultimately rewarding.  And God has sent His messenger to us, crying out: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight His paths.”

          So there’s only one question that remains: how will you prepare?