HOMILY FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT 2019
Today is Gaudete Sunday, “Rejoice Sunday”, in the liturgical Advent season. As a kid, when I saw the pink colored vestments of the priest at Mass, I knew that Christmas was very near. Advent was a time when the Sears and Montgomery Wards catalogues would arrive at the house, and I would slowly leaf through the toy section, dog earring the pages of the items I dreamed, hoped I might receive Christmas morning.
For a kid then, Rejoice Sunday brought those hopes and dreams of toy Nirvana every closer.
As an adult, my approach to this Sunday is far different than it was for me as a kid. Our earth is consumed by war and violence. Nation plotting against nation, right wing dictators taking power in many countries, our own nation is great turmoil, Yes, our earth dwells in darkness. It is not great secret that the Gospel of Jesus rails against many of the policies of our world governments including our own nation, seen in the separation and imprisoning of refugee families, forbidding doctors from administering flu shots to refugee children languishing in government cages, taking food from the mouths of the poor of our nation, and seeking to end affordable healthcare for many families in our nation.
National and global politics aside, there are many who are facing unemployment (the local flour mill in New Prague will close forever on December 31st), struggling with injuries and illnesses, the loss of significant relationships due to death and divorce. It is a tough time of year.
The awful state of our world is not just isolated to our present time. Horatius Bonar wrote:
“Come, and make all things new,
Build up this ruined earth;
Restore our faded paradise,
Creation’s second birth.”
An early American hymn stated similar sentiments:
Return, O God of love, return,
Earth is a tiresome place;
How long shall we thy children mourn
Our absence from thy face?
Yet, we are called to rejoice, nonetheless. Isaiah reminds us that God will turn around the disaster in which humanity exists.
“The desert and the parched land will exult; the steppe will rejoice and bloom. They will bloom with abundant flowers, and rejoice with joyful song. The glory of Lebanon will be given to them, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God. Strengthen the hands that are feeble, make firm the knees that are weak, say to those whose hearts are frightened:
Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing. Those whom the LORD has ransomed will return and enter Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy; they will meet with joy and gladness, sorrow and mourning will flee.” (Isaiah 35:1-6a, 10)
St. Oscar Romero, martyred for the faith, wrote these words in the midst of the El Salvadoran Civil War in which the government right wing death squads roamed the land, “disappearing people”, torturing, raping, and killing men and women who assisted the poor.
“No one can celebrate a genuine Christmas without being truly poor. The self-sufficient, the proud, those who, because they have everything, look down on others, those who have no need even of God- for them there will be no Christmas. Only the poor, the hungry, those who need someone to come on their behalf, will have that someone. That someone is God. Emmanuel. God-with-us. Without poverty of spirit there can be no abundance of God.”
St Oscar Romero names the reason for us to rejoice. Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. We do not linger in misery here on earth alone, isolated from God. God accompanies us and gives us hope. If we cultivate within ourselves, “the poverty of spirit” of which Romero writes, we will find an abundance of God. There is reason to rejoice.
In closing, there is a beautiful sixteenth century Advent Carol that expresses how we and our world will be transformed, entitled “Maria Walks Amidst The Thorn.” It is a message upon which to reflect on this Sunday and throughout this third week in Advent, especially so if we are facing some adversity in our lives.
MARIA WALKS AMID THE THORN
Maria walks amid the thorn, Kyrie elison (Lord, have mercy),
Maria walks amid the thorn,
Which sev’n long years no leaf has born,
Jesus and Maria.
What neath her heart does Mary bear, Kyrie elison,
What little child does Mary bear,
Beneath her heart he nestles there,
Jesus and Maria.
And as the two were passing near, Kyrie elison,
Lo, roses on the thorn appear,
Lo, roses on the thorn appear,
Jesus and Maria.
