THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT A

[cappie]

The Liturgy of Advent takes us out into the desert to see and hear the marvellous works and words of God—the lame leaping like the deer, the dead raised, the good news preached to the poor. The Liturgy does this to give us courage, to strengthen our feeble hands and make firm our weak knees. Our hearts can easily become frightened and weighed down by the hardships we face. We can lose patience in our sufferings as we await the coming of the Lord.

 The Catholic Faith is the Christian faith in its fullness. Its opposite is a partial or diluted selection. The great thing about being a Catholic Christian is being formed in the faith of the church through the ages including reaping the benefits of the Church’s Seasons.

The first benefit of Advent is it puts us in our place. What you are before God - that is what you are, no more and no less! The doctrine that Christ will come again to be our judge warns us to avoid the error of valuing ourselves overmuch by what others say about us. No one can take away or enhance who we are before God. This is a very difficult truth to take on board and get into our heart of hearts. The blame or praise of any other human being is of no matter compared to God's praise or blame. If what we find others think of us inflates or deflates us, we are not fully centred on the Lord.  Pope Francis recently said Advent is the opportunity to get off the pedestal of superiority

The second benefit of Advent is Christian assurance. It reminds us that once we accept the love of Christ there will be no need to fear his judgement. As St Paul writes to the Romans, 'There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus' (Romans 8.1). The universe will be ended by Jesus Christ, and he is the one who first came to reveal ‘the Love that moves the sun and the stars’ in Dante's immortal phrase. If all through our Christian lives, we have been looking to Jesus his appearing ‘in glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead’ will be consummation not condemnation.  

 The third benefit of Advent is to open up the purpose of all things. If the first benefit of Advent season is to put us in our place and the second is to remind us that place is one of being loved, the third is to spur us on to work for ‘the kingdom of this world.. to become the kingdom of our God and of Christ, his Son’ (Revelation 11:15) The first Coming of Jesus was into the womb of a holy woman, the Blessed Virgin Mary, demonstrating that we human beings are no mere compartment of the animal kingdom but are capable of union with God. His Second Coming will occur when human beings, drawn to Christ and his Church in the Spirit, have completed the divine plan 'to bring all things together in Christ'. (Ephesians 1.10) As Christ waited for the holy woman to be his Mother he now awaits a holy people to be his Bride so that as heavenly Bridegroom he can one day embrace his church so ‘that we may rise to the life immortal’. Christ awaits the purification of his church for this consummation just as he had to await a woman for his conception. In Advent the Church provides occasions for deepening repentance, our sense of need for God. In these ways and in our own individual prayer we can engage with the wonder of Advent as it speaks to us of the love and judgement of God in Christ and his purpose for the church and the world.

It is a truth that no one can take away or enhance who we are before God, such is the love he has for us and for all. As we welcome that love afresh in Advent season, may we hold in our hearts those in our circle or our church’s circle who do not know the Lord Jesus praying they too will open their hearts to him and experience his love.

As James advises in today’s Epistle, we should take as our example the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

Jesus also points us to a prophet—holding up John as a model. John knew that life was more than food, the body more than clothing. He sought the kingdom of God first, confident that God would provide. John did not complain. He did not lose faith. Even in chains in his prison cell, he was still sending his disciples—and us—to our Saviour.

 Through deeper prayer and intercession, self-examination and confession  may we engage afresh in Advent with the possibilities of God and see them realised in our lives, our churches and our communities and accomplish the spread and deepening of Catholic Faith.