I
am the voice of one crying out in the desert,
“Make straight the way of the Lord.”
The
season of Advent provides a period of four weeks that, were each of
us to take the fullest advantage of its twenty eight days, would
prepare our souls for a very powerful religious experience that
could make us very different persons come Christmas day. And, I
might add, not just on December 25th but, more importantly, this
powerful religious experience could make us different people come
December 26th as well as the remaining days of our lives, however
many (or few) they may be.
What we prepare for during this season is the Incarnation, that is, for God
to be with us in the flesh. While we may be able to grasp
this idea
with our minds, the powerful religious experience that can make us
very different persons is something we can only sense in our souls,
namely, the “joy” that can fill our souls on Christmas day.
One of the twelve fruits of the Holy Spirit, this religious
experience is a feeling that originates in the senses just as
pleasure does. But, because this is a fruit of the Holy
Spirit, we
experience something far more important in terms of our lives,
namely, that God has redeemed us and abides God with us.
So,
in light of this transforming religious experience, while the
presents we plan to unwrap on Christmas day do provide happiness,
we need to recall that they don’t provide one ounce of joy.
Yes, the happiness a new
toy provides lasts but a very short time. So, too, those new
clothes will soon wear out. And, all of those fancy schmantzy new
gadgets and gizmos quickly become passé as newer, fancier, and even
more schmantzier gadgets and gizmos titillate our senses just as the
“cornucopia of unbridled avarice” displayed in the windows of
Higbee’s Department Store in Homan, Indiana, titillated Ralphie’s
senses in The Christmas Story.
Christmas
gifts make us happy and oftentimes they are a statement of
thoughtfulness, care, and love on the part of the gift giver.
However, we need to remember that Christmas gifts provide only momentary and fleeting
happiness, lasting perhaps for several days or maybe for even a few
weeks. But then, it’s back to normal. Nothing about us has
changed, except perhaps that our desire to acquire and possess new toys, clothes,
gadgets, and gizmos has expanded geometrically.
In
contrast, the religious experience of “joy” that can fill our souls
on Christmas day neither fades nor can it be taken away. “Emmanuel”
this experience is called, the sure knowledge that “God is with
us.” God has redeemed us and is alive, present, and animating our
souls. In a properly-prepared soul, this gift has the power to
change one’s life and to become an attitude of life. Imagine
what it must be like to know that we live and move and have our very
being in the God who is with us! Imagine what it must be like to experience God
walking beside us, watching over us, supporting us, and challenging
us as we make decisions about how we will live our days! Imagine
what it must be like to know that God is with us when pain and
suffering visit us and even when someone we love dies! In each
of these situations, this gift of the Holy Spirit—abiding joy—makes
it possible to give thanks because we have sure knowledge that God is
with us.
Why
am I emphasizing this fruit of the Holy Spirit, this Third
Sunday of Advent that we call “Gaudete [‘Rejoice’] Sunday”?
Much has to do with the figure of John the Baptist depicted in
today’s gospel. Let’s be honest, shall we? John was a somewhat bizarre figure. In his own day,
while many people believed John was a prophet (or, at least, they were
attracted by his message of the Messiah’s coming and the need to
repent from sin), others thought that John was a bit “unhinged” or
“off his rocker.” In addition, the Jewish religious authorities
disdained John.
All of that didn’t matter to John, however, because
the Holy Spirit filled his soul with a deep and abiding sense of
joy. “I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, make straight
the way of the Lord,” he proclaimed. John was confident because
knew with surety that God was with him, and nowhere more so than as he set about fulfilling the personal vocation God had
entrusted to him. John was confident because he knew that he
was to herald the Messiah’s coming. This would be how John was
to make a difference in his world.
In
creating John, God entrusted him with a personal vocation—as we
heard in today’s gospel, to announce the coming of the Messiah—and,
sensing that God was with him as John set about doing what his
personal vocation required, the Holy Spirit filled John’s soul with
joy no matter what people may have thought about him, his message,
or the threat he presented. Don’t forget that John lost his head
for fulfilling his vocation!
I
am pretty sure that John presents a somewhat bizarre figure to us
today, just as he did to the Jewish people of his own day. He
differs not only in the clothes he wore but also in his diet. We’d
likely find his rough clothing extremely uncomfortable. Wild honey we
might enjoy; but, few of us likely would see much nutritional value
in eating locusts! Like the Jewish religious authorities, we might
also feel disdain for John, especially when we challenges us to repent from sin and
to make straight the pathway for God to be with us.
Yes, we differ from John at a surface level. But, we don’t differ
where it counts most, that is, beneath the surface, at the level of
our souls. Like John the Baptist, God has brought each of us into
being to make a difference in our world. Like John, we have a
personal vocation, a unique and unrepeatable mission that God has
entrusted only to us, namely, to proclaim the Good News. Like John, as we set about fulfilling our
personal vocations, the Holy Spirit will fill our souls with joy.
And, like John, we will also give thanks when adversity visits us.
Believe it or not, many people don’t sense God’s presence in their
souls, and consequently, they’ve likely never experienced joy. This
doesn’t mean their souls don’t yearn for God or that the Holy
Spirit isn’t anxious to fill their souls with joy. Quite the
opposite! Looking for happiness in created things—just think of
what best characterizes Christmas day for so many people—and believing these creations
will fill them with joy, this vast crowd of people is ensnared in a
trap that uses the season of Advent preparing to fill the void in
their souls by anticipating all of the presents they will receive on
Christmas day. Perhaps we belong to this crowd!
Yet, stop for a minute and think about it, perhaps using the
remaining two weeks of this Advent season. All of the Christmas presents
we have received over the years never really have proven themselves
adequate to the task of filling the ever-expanding void in our
souls. Sure, when Christmas day arrives, we’re happy. But, as soon
as the day after Christmas arrives, the happiness we experienced
yesterday yields to our insatiable desire to acquire and possess other new things.
Our lives haven’t changed one iota even though another Advent
season has come and gone once again.
In
Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, nephew Fred says to
Scrooge:
I
have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round—apart
from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything
belonging to it can be apart from that—as a good time: a kind,
forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in
the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one
consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people
below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave,
and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.
The
spiritual lesson to be learned from all of this is a pretty
straight-forward lesson. In sum, happiness differs from joy. While
happiness does provide delight, it is fleeting. Only joy endures.
Likewise, we can be very happy, yet have no joy in our souls. Or,
in contrast, we can have very little to be happy about, yet our
souls can be filled with great joy. That is what St. Paul wants us
to contemplate when he writes, “Rejoice always in the Lord. Again,
I say it, ‘Rejoice!’ ”
When we seize the days of the Advent season to prepare our souls for
God to be with us, we will be changed on Christmas day as the joy of
the Holy Spirit compels us to “Rejoice in the Lord!” God is with
us! Then, as we set about fulfilling our personal vocations,
as John the Baptist did, the joy teeming in our souls on Christmas day will be with us not only on
that day but also on the day
after Christmas as well as all of the remaining days of our lives.
This joy will endure because it is rooted in the sure knowledge that
God is with us. “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”!
A very brief commercial
break...
As
Catholics, the way we celebrate the Incarnation can be a time of
spiritual renewal for families. Building upon the family's
preparations for Christ's coming during the four weeks of Advent, what
family members do together on Christmas day can strengthen the bonds
of love, encourage solidarity, and overcome the divisions caused by
sin that have weakened family members and the family unit. For Catholic families, let me suggest
four very practical ways to celebrate Christmas day:
1.
Set up a Nativity scene. During the 13th century, St.
Francis of Assisi popularized the Nativity scene.
Christmas day is the day for the Baby Jesus to be placed in the
manger. Early on Christmas morning, gather the family around
the Nativity scene and have the youngest child place the Baby Jesus
in the manger. After this is completed, have the family
members join hands and sing one verse of "O Come All Ye Faithful."
2.
Attend Mass. The celebration of "Christ's Mass" on
Christmas day as a family is the moment toward which all of our
Advent preparations have brought us. In
the Eucharist, Jesus Christ—the
Incarnate word of God—becomes one with us. When family members
participate together in the celebration of the Eucharist by uniting
their hearts and minds in God, Jesus
Christ will unite the family in his body and blood, dwelling in them.
2.
Exchange gifts. On Christmas day, God gives the world His
only begotten Son. The exchange of gifts of Christmas day is
one way that we can echo God's greatest of gifts. Before opening gifts,
gather the family together and have the oldest child read the
narrative found in the Gospel of Matthew where the Magi travel from
afar to bring their finest gifts to the newborn king.
As family members exchange each gift, have the gift-giver say "Merry
Christmas, Peace be with you." In response, have the recipient
say, "Thanks be to God!"
3. Let
the lights shine. As the Christmas meal is to begin,
gather the family members and guests around the dinner table before
each person sits down to eat.
Have one family member place a white Christmas candle in the middle
of the Advent wreath located in the center of the table. Then,
as another member of the family lights the candle, a parent reads
aloud the first chapter of the Gospel of John, announcing that all
of the family members are "children of the light."
Conclude by singing one verse of "Silent Night, Holy Night."
4. Don't
forget the feast! Sharing a meal is a universal symbol
that expresses care, love, and solidarity. On Christmas day,
the meal is should be festive, a way for the people gathered around
the table to express their joy in the coming of Jesus
Christ. Inviting relatives, friends, and those who are alone
to share in this feast is a particularly apt symbol of our communion
as God's children
By
participating in these four practical activities on Christmas
day, Catholic families will not only have thanked God for the gift
of His only begotten Son and welcomed Jesus Christ into
their lives and home.
In addition, they will have experienced God present and active in
their lives and home. Then, in the days that follow, these
activities will continue to strengthen and nourish the family and
its members to bring Christ
to the world.
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