+THERE IS ONE AMONG YOU 3rd Sunday of Advent, 2017
Our Gospel speaks of John the Baptist, the voice of one crying out in the desert, the one who makes straight the way for the Lord. We can look at John the Baptist as a prophet who prepared the people of his time for the coming of the Christ but let me suggest there much more here. John represents what is going on in each of our hearts as we strive daily to open them to the presence and power of Him who is in our midst, renewing the face of the earth. In our own lives there is a voice crying out in our own time about the God of peace who makes us holy so that we may be preserved in spirit, soul and body, blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Just as God sent his beloved Son in the flesh over two thousand years ago and yet he remained hidden among his own people, so too today Jesus is present among us, the strap of whose sandal none of us is worthy to untie. Jesus is here present in the most holy Sacrament, is present in our Church, present in each of our brothers and sisters, especially in the poor, the sick, the migrant, the oppressed of our society. To realize this is to rejoice always as Paul invites us this morning, and to give thanks in all circumstances. Then we will not quench the Spirit, we will test everything so as to retain what is good. Move than ever as Christians we are being called to be persons of discernment, know what is good and refraining from every kind of evil.
The prophet of Isaiah helps us to do this. If we want to recognize the Jesus who is in our midst we have only to look for the one who brings glad tidings to the poor, the one who heals the brokenhearted, who proclaims liberty to the captives, release to the prisoners and announces a year of favor from the Lord. To do this is to be filled with rejoicing, to know the joy of Christ’s living presence right here among us and to be deeply humbled by his love continually shown us through one another. Advent and Christmas tell us not only of him who came two thousand years ago and who is to coming at the end of time but, above all, of him who draws near to us within the circumstances of our everyday lives.
The spiritual writer Ronald Rolheiser tells the story of what happened to him some years ago when he attended a weeklong retreat given by a Bob Michel a member of his own Order, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Bob was a highly sought-after spiritual mentor. “His approach was disarming. Most of us, [Rolheiser tells us] are forever looking for something novel, at the cutting edge, outside the box, something complex. But what he offered was stunningly simple and down-to-earth. He spent the whole time trying to teach us how to pray in an affective way. In essence, what he told us might be summarized this way; :You must try to pray so that, in your prayer, you open yourself in such a way that sometime—perhaps not today, but sometime—you are able to hear God say to you, ‘I love you!’ These words, addressed to you by God, are the most important words you will ever hear because, before you hear them, nothing is ever completely right with you, but after you hear them , something will be right in your life at a very deep level.”
The message, this spiritual mentor gave Rolheiser and to those with him on retreat, is far from anything sentimental. It is what we are all longing for in our lives as Christians because it is at the heart of the mystery of the Incarnation. What the Word of God become flesh is saying to us more than anything is that “I love you!” It is the source and summit of our lives as is the Eucharist we gather around this altar to celebrate. What first took place with the birth of Jesus found its fulfillment on the cross.
Our lives can become occupied with many things at this time of year but may we find the time or take the time to hear its quiet and transforming message of God saying to us “I love you!”
Isaiah 61:1-2a, 10-11; Thess. 5:16-24; John 1:6-8, 19-28