Today, the third Sunday of Advent the call of the liturgy is to meditate on ‘Conversion’ – ‘Metanoia’. The Third Sunday of Advent is also called “Gaudete Sunday”. The readings challenge us to get moving and get prepared to rejoice at the Lord’s coming.
by Fr Anthony Clifford Lobo SDB
Homily for the Third Sunday of Advent – 12 December 2021
As we journey through Advent, the liturgy of the word prepares us to receive the ‘Baby Jesus’. The first Sunday of Advent, the call of the liturgy was to stay awake and to wait for the Lord with hope. On the second Sunday, the call is to prepare the way for the Lord: to make straight his way. Today, the third Sunday of Advent, the call of the liturgy is to meditate on ‘Conversion’ – ‘Metanoia’. The Third Sunday of Advent is also called “Gaudete Sunday”. The readings challenge us to get moving and get prepared to rejoice at the Lord’s coming.
Today’s gospel continues from last Sunday; What must we do? The crowds ask Joh the Baptist, without distinction; the publicans, the most hated tax collectors, ask the same question; and finally, also the soldiers.
John’s response may be summed up thus:
- be loving by sharing your resources.
- be just/ honest.
- be content with what you have.
This question echoes evenly three times within few verses of today’s gospel: "What must we do?". It is a question that we ask ourselves many times within and outside of us, especially when anguish obscures our vision and makes us lose our way, and then we ask ourselves, are we lost? in short, what must we do? At other times this question, maybe an open-ended research question: let's think, for example, two young people who decide to embark on the path of love that will lead them to Christian marriage, and they ask themselves sincerely and generously: what must we do now? Are we ’Day dream believers’. Perhaps, more often, this same question resonates in our families and could become the expression of annoyance in conversations between generations. Parents often say, when we were youth of the past, we risked a life full of precepts, constrained by rigid and inflexible norms. For each problem there was a rule, for each situation it was already written what had to be done. Maybe I am exaggerating a little, perhaps it could be said that once upon a time there was the danger of living a discipline without love; today's young people risk the opposite. And parents are asking themselves in anguish: what must we do with these children.
John's answer to the first question from the crowds is in the line of sharing food and clothing: "Whoever has two tunics, give one to whoever has none; and whoever has food, do the same". To the publicans, John recommends, in collecting taxes, not to extort even an extra penny. Besides this, John the Baptist asks the soldiers to be sober: "be satisfied with your wages".
Here we have three answers for an identical life programme, made up of elementary duties, of simple and practical commitments, of possible behaviours for situations of different categories of people. It seems a minimum morality, and in fact it is a bit, at least if it is measured with that, much higher and more demanding, which Jesus will require of his disciples (Lk 6:29; 12:33). Yet John's response will not be obscured by that of Jesus, but still retains its relevance even today and stands out precisely for its basic and very concrete character. After all, are we sure that it does not concern us?
What must we do? This question is very close to the heart of the Evangelist Luke, who also reports it at the beginning of his second volume, at the end of the great discourse given by Peter on the day of Pentecost, when those present, upon hearing the message of the head of the apostles , they felt their hearts pierce and asked Peter and the other apostles: "What must we do, brothers?". Peter's response is analogous to that of the Forerunner: it is necessary to convert and be baptized (cf. Acts 2: 37-38). The call to conversion is therefore the perennial message of the Church.
Secondly, what must we do? We feel this question is ours, for our times and it returns punctually in the crossroads of life. The answer that we often hear chanted in all tones by the various public and private "broadcasters" - not just TV, of course - is made up of recipes all seasoned with the verbs of rampant narcissism: settle down, fulfil yourself, get by, have fun. But do these formulas passed off as miraculous do give us the happiness they promise?
Today's liturgy repeats to us with the quick and dry words of John the Baptist: it is necessary to convert, it is necessary to change direction, it is urgent to take the path of justice, solidarity, sobriety: these are the "fundamentals" of life, the essential values and indispensable duties of an existence that wishes to be genuinely human, and constitute the indispensable preparation for the gospel, the introduction to that renewal, which will be brought to fulfilment by Christ the Lord.
How would the world become if those with two clothes (tunics) gave one to those who did not? Behold, John shouts to us: start by treating your neighbour like a brother/sister: he/she too is cold like you, give him/her one of your two coats; do not do violence to them, as you do not want to be done to you; do not think only of you and your needs, on the contrary always put the other person before you. Before yours, put his/her peace, and you too will find yours. Never say, like Cain: am I my brother's keeper?
Thirdly, be converted! It is the first verb of the good news announced by John the Baptist. And today the liturgy of this third Sunday of Advent helps us to rediscover a particular dimension of conversion, which on the one hand is an impartial and sure measure, on the other it is a tasty and inevitable fruit: it is joy. "Rejoice, daughter of Zion!", We heard in the 1st reading, taken from the book of Zephaniah, a passionate invitation to trust and joy; then, in the responsorial psalm we repeated: "Alleluia: The God of joy comes among us". And we also listened to Paul's insistent appeal: "I want you to be happy. Rejoice in the Lord, always, rejoice!".
Today it takes a great deal of courage to speak of joy: the world is beset by so many problems and fears, the future so burdened by so many unknowns as to reduce the present to an incubation of fear. Yet what Chesterton affirmed remains true: Joy is "the gigantic secret of the Christian".
To a world that confuses happiness with pleasure, faith is not afraid to announce that perfect joy is possible, even in trials. To conclude our reflection on this ‘Gaudete Sunday’, we remember Michael Nesmith who passed away on Friday, but his group ‘The Monkees’, left us an uplifting song, entitled ‘Day Dream Believer’ for our troubled times.
The song summarizes the story of a pair of newlyweds. He's telling his bride, "We used to idealize each other. You thought of me as your knight in shining armour, and I thought of you as Miss Perfect. But now that we're living together every day, you're seeing the real, ordinary, everyday me and I'm seeing the real ordinary you. And you know what? That's okay with me! The real me and the real you are going to be happy together... even though the honeymoon is now over, and we don't have two cents to our name!"
John the Baptist was a Day dream believer, in preparing the way for the Lord and today exhorting us to conversion.
Courage, the liturgy tells us today: behold, the God of joy comes among us!
May the Name of Jesus be always HOLY and BLESSED
Happy “Gaudete Sunday”of Advent