Advent 3B Christ Our Light
You may be wondering what is up today with the pink or rose
colored vestment that Fr Jerry is wearing. The liturgical color for this third
Sunday in Advent is indeed rose because together with the whole church we
celebrate Gaudete Sunday, which translated from the Latin means joyful. The
church wants us to be joyful in our anticipation of the coming season. This is
the weekend we light the rose colored candle on our advent wreath. This is the
Day we hear St Paul tell us “Rejoice always”. Why have a joyful Sunday during
Advent?, you might ask.
Because during Advent, which is indeed a season of waiting
and of penance, we are reminded that as followers of Christ, we can never be
gloomy in our prayer and penance. For good reason, we should not be wallowing
in sin. And that is because Jesus is still with us, which is why joy is the
echo of God’s life in us.
Advent
is a season of many themes. It is the season where we wait in joyful
anticipation of the coming of Christ. It is the season of watchful waiting, not
knowing when a spectacular event may occur. It is a season of patience, where
we admire the patience of Mary. It took a great deal of patience, not knowing
what would occur after she said “Yes” to God’s call. Not to mention the
patience she must have endured with her pregnancy, and with trying to find a
place to give birth.
But another theme is that of Christ our light. As the
amount of daylight we are granted this month continues to dwindle with each
passing day, we seem to delve deeper and deeper into darkness. The nights get
longer, the days get shorter. Darkness can also manifest itself in world
events. The European Union continues to teeter on the brink of insolvency. The
unemployment situation is slightly improved in our own country although at a
minuscule rate. Thus, there are still deep concerns about the sustainability of
our economy. There are concerns and anxieties with our debt level and with our leadership
in all branches of government. Sometimes we wonder what will ever pull us out
of these dark days.
We are ever on the lookout for someone, some event, that
will shed light on the situation at hand. We are waiting for that white knight,
that quick fix that will solve world problems, as well as our own individual problems.
There is a story in Catholic circles about a small rural
Catholic parish whose pastor had done a marvelous job of leading his people for
more than 20 years. The parishioners absolutely loved him. He was the most
wonderful priest anyone could want. They loved everything about him. Then one
day his Bishop transferred him out of town. The people were irate. They were
furious that the Bishop would dare do such a thing. Conditions got so bad; the
Bishop had to make a trip to the parish to explain himself.
And
what he told the people was something quite unexpected. He told them their
priorities were wrong. He told them they were seeing the priest as
indispensible. They saw him as their light of the world. He said Get your focus
off the pastor, & put it where it belongs—put your focus on the one person
who is indispensible, Jesus Christ. The pastor is not the light; Christ is our
light. It is not about us. It is about Him. For it is Jesus who is truly the
light of the world.
The interesting irony of all this is that have you ever
noticed what happens when people try to make it all about themselves?
Inevitably, their life spirals downward. That is, they undermine the very
possibility of getting what they need. I mean, after all, who is going to be
attracted to a person wearing a figurative neon sign that says “Love Me” or
“Respect Me.”
In
contrast, the most lovable people we know, the ones we respect the most lead
lives that are fundamentally focused on others. We love those who love us just
the way we are, and not to meet their neediness. We respect those who speak
& live the truth itself and not what they think others might want to hear.
We are full of light only when we are revealing Christ the
light. It is not at all our light that is important, but rather our witness to
the light has everything to do with being penetrated by that light.
We hope for the darkness to fade away and for
the Light of the world to shine in our world today. There is paradox in the
season of Advent. Christ came 2000 yrs ago, but we prepare for his coming
today. We prepare for his coming in the hope of bringing us out of ignorance
and sin and into the light that is Christ.
As a kid growing up, one of my favorite Advent
activities was putting one electric candle in our front window. Many of our
neighbors did this, as well. It’s not much of a decoration; not at all fancy. Today,
it would probably be classified as tacky by the neighborhood decorating
committee. But it truly symbolized the light of Christ piercing the darkness. At
that time, the Catholic order, the Christophers, would run TV ads asking people
to do just that, to light just one little candle. For it doing so, said the
voice over, what a bright world this would be.
