Third Sunday Of Advent Year B

Isa 61.1-1, 10-11;  
I Thess 5.16-24;  
John 1.6-8, 19-28

WITH HUMILITY WE CAN ATTAIN JOY

Our Lord’s cousin St. John the Baptist was known for his humility. When they asked John who he was, his reply was plain and simple, “I am not the Christ”. He made himself as insignificant as possible compared with Our Lord, saying “I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.” The evangelist tells us that John came as a witness to Christ. Our Lord is the true light that enlightens every man, whereas John is described in the negative:  “He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light.”    
 
Perhaps we think of John as a sort of signpost, useful for pointing people in the right direction, but otherwise of little interest. Yet John the Baptist’s humility was even greater than this. After describing himself entirely in the negative, saying that he was not the Christ, nor one of the great prophets come back to the world, he abases himself still further, to something even less than a signpost – a mere sound echoing in the desert. “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” A little later, speaking of Jesus, John says, “He must increase and I must decrease.”  This should be a theme of our spiritual life as we prepare for Christmas. We must decrease, He must increase. We must humble ourselves before the great God who is coming to save His people. Perhaps one practical way to do this is in humble adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, a spiritual exercise or novena particularly appropriate during the Advent season.
 
John the Baptist’s preaching drew great crowds from the cities and countryside. They flocked out to him in the rather inaccessible Jordan valley. For all his humility, John’s reputation was considerable. When Jesus’ teaching and miracles began to arouse interest, the authorities speculated that perhaps John had been raised from the dead. When the disciples wanted Jesus to teach them to pray, they asked him, “Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.” And Christ Himself not only describes John as being a shining lamp’, but also declares but also declares him to be, “a prophet, yes, and more than a prophet.” In the vocabulary of Israel, there could be no greater tribute than this.  “More than a prophet.” It put John above Samuel, Elijah, Isaiah, and Ezekiel. It even put him above Abraham and Moses.  
 
The way John effaces himself with his words is in marked contrast with his appearance, which was guaranteed to attract attention. He wore a garment of camel’s hair, tied with a leather girdle. His diet was positively prehistoric: locusts and wild honey. He must have been an odd figure, wildly proclaiming what the prophet Malachi had called “the great and terrible day of the Lord.” But his odd appearance was not contrary to his humility. He made himself nothing so that he could point to Christ, and a signpost is no use if it is not going to be seen.  His stern appearance and rough manner could hardly have made people feel at home, and many took his message to heart. He worked no miracles, and yet the people were convinced that he was a prophet.  Many even thought that he was the Messiah. John aroused great interest, and so the authorities sent officials from Jerusalem, priests, and Levites, to ask him if he were the Messiah. His clear statement was one of denial: “I am not the Christ.”
 
John said of his divine cousin,  “Among you stands one who you do not know.”   The fact that the same Lord stands among us in His Holy Church is what gives us our reason for rejoicing. With the insight of faith, we know who it is that stands among us.  It is our confidence in the presence of Christ which is the ground of our rejoicing. That same joyful confidence gives today’s liturgy its special tone when the austerity of Advent is somewhat modified;  the rose pink vestments, the flowers for Our Lady,  the sound of the organ. The opening antiphon of today’s Mass bids us to rejoice. “Rejoice in the Lord always. The Lord is near.”  We hear Isaiah encouraging the people, saying, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God.” We hear St. Paul preaching to the Thessalonians, “Rejoice always; may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless for the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ.”
 
Looking forward to the coming of Christ, and at the same time very sure that He is already among us, we cannot but recall another of His names. The angel told Joseph that the child to be born of Mary would be called ‘Emmanuel’, which means ‘God with us.’ That is why we rejoice with the humility that John the Baptist showed to such a perfect degree.  We humbly acknowledge that we need the Saviour to be born anew in our hearts at Christmas. Without Him, we are nothing. Paradoxically, we rejoice that the same Lord is already among us in His Eucharist.  The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is made possible by His first advent.  The Eucharist helps us to understand better the Lord who comes, again and again, into our bleak and wintry lives, giving us the warmth and joy that Christmas should always renew.
 
At Mass, we hear again the words of John:  “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” And our response is the words spoken by the Roman centurion when he asked Our Lord to heal his servant. He believed that Jesus could heal the servant by merely a word. “I am not worthy to receive you under my roof.”  We repeat these humble words just before Holy Communion.  Let us prepare for the joy of Christmas by deepening our faith in Christ, already present among us, truly and miraculously, in His Eucharist. With humility, we can have the joy and peace that surpasses all understanding and last forever.

Rejoice in the Lord and May the joy of the Lord be your strength. Amen.

Fr Joseph Osho