Third Sunday of Advent (December 11^th 2011)     

John 1:6-8, 19-28

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1. Gaudete Sunday challenges us to reflect on the meaning of real joy. What is the difference between joy and pleasure?

2. In what sense do we prefer to live in the shadows? In what way does the light of Christ show up the ambiguities and compromises in our lives?

3. Is it easy and natural for us to embrace the true light, or does it involve a challenging renunciation of old ways?

4. Can we learn from the example of John the Baptist and stop placing ourselves at the centre of our world? In what way can this help the light to enter our lives?

Gaudete Sunday challenges us to reflect on the meaning of real joy.

Gaudete Sunday is traditionally the Sunday of rejoicing in the coming of the Lord. What exactly is real joy? Real joy is something different to a feeling of dizziness or light-headedness! We tend to confuse true joy with the times in which we reward ourselves with momentary pleasures. Joy brings a certain pleasure of its own, but pleasure for the sake of itself fails to bring joy of any sort and can lead to emptiness. In life we are always confronted with the issue of choosing the greater joy. Man is always seeking joy, happiness, fullness. But just what is the fullness of joy?

            This passage from Chapter One of John's Gospel refers to the beginning of the ministry of John the Baptist. We are told that John himself was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light, so that all might believe through him. The first thing we note in this text is that the light is something that comes into the world. I do not possess it of myself, but must await for its arrival. It must be bestowed on me as a gift. The first act of God's creation was "Let there be light!" God's creation begins with the appearance of light, and this Gospel also links redemption to the shining of light in the world.

True joy is impossible if we live in the shadows with a distorted perspective on reality. True joy requires immersion in the fullness of light

To enter into the joy that this Sunday's liturgy represents, we need someone who will bear witness to the light. We need to come to believe in the light, but the problem is that we have a reluctance to accept the light. We feel more secure in the shadows, where we can hide our compromises and ambiguities. False joy involves avoiding the light and having a distorted perspective on reality. Full joy, on the other hand, is possible wherever there is fullness of light. All of us have received witness to this light; we have heard the good news about it, and, through our faith, we have being issued with a call to enter into the battle of either accepting or refusing the true light.

What does it mean to believe in the light?

What does accepting the true light mean? It means to believe in the good, to believe in salvation, to believe in the love of God, in the fullness of our existence. It means to believe in the redemption of our past; to believe that everything in our lives can become light, can become useful, can become salvation and mission, peace, pardon, and encounter with God. We tend to resist this light and we need someone like John the Baptist to cry out "Look at the light! Look at the goodness of God manifested in your existence! That which happened in your past and that weighs you down can be resolved and healed completely! It is never true that a person's situation is hopeless! It is never true that things are as banal and empty as they might appear to us. Believe in the light! Open your eyes and fix your gaze on the invisible. That light is not the light of this world but another greater light."

           

Accepting the light means turning away from the darkness

No one can enter into joy without renouncing his own vision of things. No one enters the full joy of God unless he denies the "light" of the old man. We must turn away from the partial perspective, the narrow interpretation, the infantile viewpoint, the idolatrous approach to life that we have closeted ourselves in. The joy that is coming into the world at Christmas is a joy that conquers darkness. When someone is in the shadows and is exposed to bright light, his eyes hurt. Full light is a terrifying thing because it unmasks the ambiguities and unsavoury things that lie in the darkness. The true joy that can never be lost is not compatible with a life filled with ambiguities and compromises. When figures like John the Baptist bear witness to the light, they urge us to be ready to embrace the struggle that this involves. They say, "Do not despair; do not lose faith; do not be intimidated by shadows and darkness, by damaging words, by the negative voices that assail the heart of man".

Humility is a virtue that allows the light to enter our lives and take centre stage

One of the distinctive characteristics of John the Baptist is his humility. The first thing he wishes to make clear is that he is not the Christ. He does this despite the fact that people were coming to him in droves from Jerusalem. It would have been easy for him to have taken central stage and enjoyed some of the attention and glory. What a marvellous character! A man who knew how to bear witness to someone greater; who knew how to place himself on the periphery so that the truth might prosper. That is how light enters our lives too, when we take example from John the Baptist and stop placing ourselves at the centre of things; when we stop treating ourselves as absolutes. Humility - the honest recognition of one's limits and peripheral role - often brings peace to our lives. When we take ourselves too seriously, we take the weight of the world on our shoulders, like the mythical Atlas. But I am not the Christ, I am not the centre of things. Rather I am the one that is in need of salvation. I am one who needs to speak of another, and never of myself. All of the saints knew how to speak of the Lord, and never confused themselves with the true light. Humility is a great virtue. It is such a joy to be in the company of a humble person, and so trying to be with someone who is full of their own importance!