3rd Sunday of Advent - Faculty/Staff Mass
Each year it seems Christmas comes
earlier and earlier. It is as though
after Thanksgiving the secular world, having “already seen this movie,” presses
the “fast forward” button to “get to the good parts.” Meanwhile, we in the Church look like a bunch
of curmudgeonly old humbugs, because we insist on watching the whole thing and
repeating all the lines; we insist on this thing called “Advent.” Well, I can assure you, I am no humbug. I even wore my festive Christmas socks
tonight to prove it! Christmas parties
that are actually pre-Christmas are inevitable at this time of year, and even
the Church’s liturgy seems to give a “green light” to some anticipated
celebration, as each year on the 3rd Sunday of Advent we have what
we call “Gaudete Sunday.” Gaudete, being the Latin second-person
plural imperative for “Rejoice!” And so,
we are told in each of the readings this Sunday, in some way or another, to “go
ahead and rejoice!” It’s a bit like being
given permission to peel back one corner of the wrapping paper to a sneak a
peek at the present that awaits us under the tree.
Add to this the fact that the word “advent”
doesn’t mean “waiting,” but “coming,” or “arrival.” We aren’t, therefore, really “waiting” for
Jesus’ birth, much less putting on some sort of reenactment of His birth. He has already been born; He has already come
and made His dwelling among us. He is
with us even now, according to His own promise to be with us always “until the
end of the age.” And so, what are we
waiting for? What really is the point of
this preparatory season? Why not just
give in already to full-on, unabashed rejoicing?
Perhaps we need this season – perhaps we
need even this last week of preparation – because as ready as God is to give us
this great gift that is the Incarnation of His Son, we may not be fully ready
to receive it. For this reason, I think,
the Church in her liturgy presents us again with the figure of the John the
Baptist, the great forerunner of our Lord.
And we are reminded once more of the prophecy of Isaiah of a “voice of
one crying out in the desert, [to] ‘make straight the way of the Lord.’” Perhaps there are still “valleys to be raised
up” and “rough places to be made plain” in us, before we enter fully into our
annual celebration of the Lord’s birth.
John
offers a baptism of repentance in the
waters of the Jordan, a kind of wilderness mikveh,
a cleansing ritual like that done by the priests before entering the Temple or performing
some official ceremonial duty. Though,
now this cleansing is done to prepare for the coming of the Christ, who will
refer to Himself as the Temple. Of Him,
John says, “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.” And so, there is both need and opportunity still
in this season to truly prepare our hearts, not only for our full-bodied
celebration of Christmas in a week’s time, but for the coming of Christ, both
daily into our lives and whenever He may come again – either in glory at the
end of time or when we are called from this life.
In visiting with Sister Joan last Sunday
evening here in the Chapel, following a packed prayer service for Kayla Decker,
she made the point that a death like this – the sudden and unexpected death of
a young person like Kayla – quickly destroys in us and especially in our students of any illusion of invincibility or
immortality. I don’t mention this to be
dour on a night that is meant to be festive, but simply to call us back to the
deeper, spiritual significance of this Advent season and to the deeper,
spiritual joy that Christmas should bring us.
This season is not simply about having beautiful homes, but having
beautiful souls. And the birth of Jesus
is not simply a “cute story” about the birth of a child, but about a kind of
cosmic reversal that means an end to sin and death, and new life even from death
– because this same child, this same Jesus, will grow up and teach and preach,
and lay down his life for us, and take it up again as the first fruits of the
promised resurrection. And this is
indeed cause for rejoicing.
To return for a moment to the figure
of John the Baptist, how better to prepare for our fuller celebration of
Christmas than by following his example.
The thing that I have always loved about John the Baptist is that he had
every opportunity to seize the “spotlight” for himself. As we know, some even supposed him to be the
longed for Messiah, but at every turn he pointed to Jesus, the Lamb of
God. He was ever the signpost and the
herald of our Lord. To put it simply,
John the Baptist is a man of true humility.
The essence of humility is to acknowledge that God is God and we are
not, and to not feel threatened by that, but in fact to rejoice in that. And so, John says in as many ways as he can,
“I am not the Christ,” and he pours all his energies into pointing out the true
Christ, the Messiah who is coming into the world.
In thinking of this, I was reminded of
a conference given by a very holy, elderly priest at a retreat I attended
several years ago. He was telling the
story about the public reception that was held for him for his 60th
anniversary of priesthood. He talked
about how overwhelmed he felt, as person after person came up to him and
thanked him and shared some personal story about how he had helped them in some
way or about something he had said in a homily or in the confessional. And, just as he was starting to feel a little
embarrassed by all this attention, he heard that interior, inaudible, but
unmistakable voice of the Master say to him: “They’re not here for you. They’re here for me. You are the garment.”
In a way, the people that went out to
see John the Baptist weren’t there for him, but for the one to whom he was
pointing. They were there for the
Christ, they just hadn’t met him yet. In
the same way, I think so many of the students who come our way as campus
ministers, professors, administration, staff, counselors or anything else, do
so not for us, but for Christ. They come
for Him. We are the simply the
garment. This is not to belittle our
work in any way, and we shouldn’t feel threatened by this, but should in fact
rejoice that in, through, and even at times despite
ourselves, Christ comes through to those we are here to serve.
So, yes, Christmas will be here before
we know it. It doesn’t help that this
year the 4th week of Advent is compressed to just a few hours on
Sunday before Christmas Eve Masses begin later that same day. But despite the rush of Christmas, and even
our somewhat anticipated celebration of it, I pray that we will find time for
quiet, solitude and prayer in this week, so that in true humility we can
prepare for the coming of Christ, in all that that means, and to receive anew
the gift of redemption that He offers.
May
God bless you, your families and loved ones in this holy season, and may we all
look forward to a new year and a new semester in which we have the privilege of
being the garment of Christ.