December 16^th 2018.  Gaudete Sunday - Third Sunday of Advent

GOSPEL: Luke 3, 10-18

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

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .

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GOSPEL: Luke 3, 10-18

The crowds asked John the Baptist, “What should we do?”
He said to them in reply, “Whoever has two cloaks
should share with the person who has none.
And whoever has food should do likewise.”
Even tax collectors came to be baptized and they said to him,
“Teacher, what should we do?”
He answered them, “Stop collecting more than what is prescribed.”
Soldiers also asked him, “And what is it that we should do?”
He told them, “Do not practice extortion,
do not falsely accuse anyone,
and be satisfied with your wages.”
Now the people were filled with expectation,
and all were asking in their hearts
whether John might be the Christ.
John answered them all, saying, “I am baptizing you with water,
but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor
and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Exhorting them in many other ways, he preached good news to the people.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . On this Gaudete Sunday, we hear the preaching of the good news by John the Baptist. But wait a minute – did you say “good news”?  Why then does John preach about being shaken and cleansed and purified by fire? In order to receive the good news of salvation, we must first turn away from sin, selfishness, mediocrity. John the Baptist does not provide the solution for an authentic and full life, but he prepares us for it by presenting us with the first essential step. And this is not easy. We cannot begin to do good until we have stopped doing evil. It is not easy for us to give up those habits and practices that are oriented towards ourselves. We are asked to begin by making this small step, by doing what is possible for us, so that the Lord can then enter our lives and do the impossible!

On Gaudete Sunday we encounter John the Baptist who prepares us to receive the good news

This third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, in year C begins with an invitation to rejoice from the prophet Zephaniah. “Shout for joy, O daughter Zion! Sing joyfully, O Israel! Be glad and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem!” According to the first reading, the Lord has revoked our condemnation. What does this refer to? Let us try to understand it by considering the Gospel. The passage from Luke tells of the preaching of John the Baptist and how it was received by the people. The Messiah is coming and John is preaching a message of conversion in order to prepare the way. The Pharisees, tax collectors and soldiers all want to know what it is that they need to do in response to this good news. Let us recall that the preaching of John was an essential stage in the coming of the Messiah. In the Acts of the Apostles, we hear how the apostles chose a substitute to take the place of Judas. The sole criterion was that he should have been with the Lord from the time of the preaching of John the Baptist.

The “good news” of John involves being cleansed and purified with fire! Sometimes it is hard for us to accept change that requires us to abandon the mediocrity and distortions within me which are incompatible with the Lord.

At the end of this Gospel passage we have a sample of the preaching of John, and it is described as “evangelisation” – the preaching of good news. “I am baptizing you with water,
but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing  floor and to gather the wheat into his barn,  but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” At first sight this doesn’t seem very consoling! It involves being cleansed, shaken, having our “chaff” removed and burned. How is this connected to the revocation of our condemnation that we mentioned earlier? It is the transformation that is the good news. Whenever something new presents itself, we have a fear of certain kinds of change, whilst we desire other kinds of change. Newness strikes fear in our hearts but is also desired by us. That is because part of our hearts are affected by that which is unresolved or mistaken, worldly or mediocre. When the good news is announced and draws me towards the light, I realise that there is much in me that is not compatible with the light. I fear that these things will have to be abandoned. Being attached to things that are twisted and wrong, I fear a change that would stop me from doing these things that are wrong. We are dependent on many things in our existence, and we think that we cannot get on without these things. But whenever we become aware that a greater good can be obtained by getting rid of these things, then the acceptance of change becomes easier. To lose what is mine in order to have more of what is mine can be done very easily! But if I think that that which I will receive is less than that which I will lose, then real conversion is required to accept a transformation of this sort.

John the Baptist does not give the definitive solutions to our problems. He simply exhorts us to do justice, to refrain from doing evil

John the Baptist is not the Lord and does not give definitive solutions. However he provides the preparation for the definitive solutions. He exhorts people to distributive justice. He who has two tunics should give to him who has none. He who has enough to eat should do likewise. The tax collectors who come to John would have been really implicated in injustice. They collected money for the Romans and their “commission” consisted in extorting as much as possible from individuals and keeping the change. If someone owed the Romans 50 coins, then the publicans would extort 70 or 80 and keep the rest for themselves. As well as exhorting the publicans to justice, John asks the soldiers to be content with their pay and not to maltreat those under them. This distributive justice preached by John is very comprehensible from a human point of view. It seems absurd that the rich countries do not assist the poor countries, that some nations are burdened with debts that they cannot ever repay. When John Paul II asked that these debts be cancelled for the great jubilee of the year 2000, there was a negative reaction from many quarters, but he had not simply asked for something in the name of Christ. In the name of humanity these injustices should be put to rights. The preaching of John the Baptist is at the level of this call to righteousness: to stop being unjust, to refrain from extortion, to not seek more pay.

John the Baptist positions himself at the first stage of conversion, which is to refrain from doing evil. If you want to do good, then the first step is to stop doing evil!

What does all of this mean? John the Baptist positions himself at the first stage of conversion, which is to refrain from doing evil. If you want to do good, then the first step is to stop doing evil! Some people go through complicated processes of discernment, asking themselves if they should go out to other countries to serve, but at the same time they are unable to overcome more local and trivial issues of rancour that they feel towards certain people around them. Do you really think you can go and evangelise in the third world when you are unable to forgive your own brother? The first step is to do things that are at hand, to stop doing wrong. The good news is that when you take this first step, then something greater is on its way. We can begin the combat against that which is objectionable in our lives, but then the stronger one arrives, the one who is true, the one who brings authentic life. We start with something small, and how small it is compared to that which is offered to us by the one who gives new life! The little dot that we give will result in an ocean of grace to us from Christ, but without our little dot Christ is unable to begin. If I do the little step that is possible for me, then the impossible will be achieved by the Lord.

Our website (immaculatemother.org) has a new format! Every week, we are going to focus on a theme. This week the focus is on the coming of our Saviour. Was he really born on December 25th? Who were the magi? What does Christmas mean? Who made the first crib? Check it out!