REJOICE! THE LORD COMES TO SAVE US!

Third Sunday of Advent (Year A)
Isa 35.1-6;  
Jas 5.7-10;
Mt 11.2-11

The Third Sunday of Advent is referred to as “Gaudete Sunday.” “Gaudete” which means “Rejoice!” Why do we rejoice? We rejoice because the coming, the advent, of our Savior, is near. We have the upliftings words in today first reading taken from the book of prophet Isaiah; The desert and the parched land will exult;
the steppe will rejoice and bloom.
They will bloom with abundant flowers,
and rejoice with joyful song.
Today’s Gospel is about three people:  St. John the Baptist, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and myself – that is to say each one of us.  John is the forerunner, Jesus is of course the Messiah and we are His followers, His disciples.

ST.JOHN THE BAPTIST
John as the forerunner is to announce the advent, the arrival, of Christ. John’s testimony has been announcing that arrival for two thousand years, and it is still introducing and pointing Him out to us today. John does it not only by his words, but by his life, and by his virtues. And if we are going to turn to Christ as John did, and adhere to Him through thick and thin as John did, we need the qualities that John had. Let us try to look at those qualities through the eyes of Our Lord, so far as we are able.
CHRIST ON JOHN

Our Lord said a number of things about John that are not easily grasped. First, He said that John was the greatest man born of woman. That makes John greater than all the prophets before him; greater than Isaiah, greater than Jeremiah,  greater than all of them, prophets major and minor. This accolade is surprising only until we remember that all the other earlier prophets had only foretold the Christ. They merely predicted that He would come. John was given the grace actually to identify Him when He did come, pointing to him and saying, “Behold the Lamb of God!”  
STILL ON THE BAPTIST…

The second thing Our Lord said about John was also mysterious.  He said that each of us who has been born into the kingdom of God is greater than John. But this also is understandable. For John is the greatest man born of woman, but we have been given a new birth in baptism, by water and the Holy Spirit. We have been born as Christ Himself was born: not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. John had the spirit of prophecy, and could point out Christ. We have been given the spirit of Christ, and therefore we have the grace to try and copy the Master, whom John could only foreshadow.
 
AND HIS DISCIPLINE!

The Lord also said of John, “What did you go out to see – a reed swaying in the wind?” If you know the Holy Land you will know that beside the river Jordan are hordes of tall reeds swaying to and fro in the breeze.  For the two millennia since John the Baptist, hordes of Christians, Catholics included, have so often swayed and bent with every new passing breeze of the secular world. John never swayed, he never bent. He was more like a great Californian redwood.  He was uncompromising, and for his principles he died a martyr’s death.  
 
JOHN’S AFFIRMATIVE ACTIONS

Consider the event in today’s Gospel. Before being imprisoned, John had prepared the way for Christ, baptised Him, and given witness that here at last was Messiah, the one who takes away the sins of the world. But then a terrible disappointment set in. The Jewish people expected the Messiah to sweep away their enemies with a brash display of military force. John himself probably had this expectation, but nothing turned out as expected.  For sticking to his principles John was thrown into prison, in danger of death.  
 
WHAT MATTERS
If this Jesus really was the Christ, why were things going so badly? John sent messengers to ask the young rabbi point blank, “are you the one who is to come, or have we got to wait for someone else?”  In His reply, Our Lord probably disappointed them still further.  He told John’s disciples simply to report what they saw and heard: the peaceful miracles of restoration foretold by Isaiah were coming true.  The blind see, the deaf hear, the lame  walk. But then the Lord adds a dash of cold water. Blessed is the man who does not lose faith in me. Blessed is the one who is not shocked by His humble, peaceful ways.  Those who had hoped that the Christ would come as a mighty warlord, discovered instead that He had come with gifts of peace and  healing.
 
BE HUMBLE

During what remains of Advent, let us, like John, prepare ourselves for the Master Who longs to enter in to the innermost mansion of our soul.  Let us use this time to emulate the disciplined regime of the Lamb’s greatest prophet, especially his honesty and his humility. Humility was John’s greatest strength.  Speaking of the Lamb of God, he said: “He must increase, I must decrease.” He also said, “I am not worthy to untie his sandals”.  We need that kind of humility in order to imitate John in his adherence to the lowly Saviour.  Humility: a virtue difficult to cultivate and easy to lose.  

Could the joy and hope we have in the birth of Jesus flow into seeking joy and hope for others?

Many were hoping that the Messiah would come as a warlord, ruthlessly suppressing our enemies.  But such a Lord would leave us bound, cold and rigid in the prison of our sins. Instead, the warming advent of Christ brings a more far-reaching liberation. The great thaw which Christ brings, putting an end to Satan’s winter, this great thaw does produce miracles of freedom: sight to those who are blind to the things of the Spirit. It can unstop the ears of those who are deaf to the Word of God.  Frozen hearts and minds can be freed to love once again. Fettered tongues can sing and laugh for joy.  But for such liberation to be possible, we must learn to be humble.  We must accept in humility the advent of the Prince of Peace, even when His coming and its effects are not quite what we had at first expected.

Let us be ambassadors of hope, peace and joy!

May we rejoice in the Lord!

Credit:

Fr Joseph Osho