Vigils Reading

THE JOY OF ADVENT

By Thierry Maertens & Jean Frisque

◊◊◊

The announcement of John the Baptist’s birth has put in relief the salient

traits of his personality. The circumstances of his birth hardly add new

elements. Neither the birth nor the circumcision are told for themselves. They

serve only as a framework for the imposition of the name already proclaimed by

the angel.

Thanks to the unexpected agreement of Zechariah and Elizabeth, the

name of John the Baptist appears to be willed by heaven. The healing of

Zechariah’s dumbness too is a sign of a heavenly manifestation. Luke dwells on

the astonishment and joy caused by the manifestation. These are characteristic

symptoms of messianic times. The swiftness with which the news spreads,

image of the swiftness of the spread of the gospel, is also a sign of the presence of

heaven among human beings.

At the very time these two first chapters of Luke were first put out, the

contemporary world was singularly bereft of joy. The Jewish nation was

crushed under the heel of an occupying power, while the Greek peoples were

reduced by apathy to alienation.

Are things very different now, with uneasiness on every horizon, in a

world where the majority of people are ignored and alienated?… Yet Luke’s

message remains valid. Joy resides in the assurance that one has communion

with God, and that God is present even in human events. It is not however an

immediate consequence of belief in God’s presence. The God of the Jansenists

is not a joyful God, nor is the God of the pious. The God who gives joy is the God

who is present in the whole texture of a human being’s life, in secular activities,

in the most private thoughts and the deepest encounters, in sufferings that

surmount discouragement. The joy of messianic times is this joy.