THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT - YEAR B

THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT – YEAR B
(Is 61:1-2, 10-11; 1Thess 5:16-24; John 1:6-8, 19-28)

Theme: Let us light up our life with the joy of the Lord

Reflection:

- The Sunday of the ‘Gaudete’: the Sunday of Joy: We have entered into the Third Sunday of Advent and as we have already indicated it is proposed by the Church as the Sunday of Joy. It is apt that in the middle of the celebration of Advent we have again one Sunday in which we accelerate our preparation with the joy of ‘nearing’ the great feast of the Nativity of the Lord. We have just finished two weeks of ‘distant’ preparation in which we have mediated the ‘second coming’ of the Lord at the end of times. We have to just initiate our entrance into the ‘immediate’ preparation of the celebration of the ‘first coming’ of the Lord in time and in history for the salvation of mankind. Now we are exactly in the middle of the preparations – that is between the reflections of the two comings of Jesus. That’s why we are joyful on the one hand for completing fruitfully the first part of the Advent and on the other hand to restart with the same spirit of joy the second part of the Advent which will reach us to the core of the preparations – the final celebration of the Birth of the Lord in the world.
- Let us remind ourselves of the two previous themes: ‘Let us promise to the Lord that we do not ever go away from his house’ was our meditation for the first Sunday and ‘We await and hurry up for the day of the Lord preparing our hearts for him’ was the reflection of the second Sunday. With the force of these two themes we shall reflect on the theme that we are called ‘to enkindle our life with the joy of the Lord’. Accordingly we have two action-words for our reflection today: the light and the joy; these are the two words that dominate today’s readings.
- Light and Joy: are the two things we always want to have in our life and accept and admit that they are same things that we always miss. We are full of want of them and we feel full of emptiness every time with the lack of them. Let us ask ourselves to gear up our journey of reflection: ‘Are we joyful and illuminate?’ if we are able to answer this question sincerely our Sunday celebrations are fruitful and we will have spirit-filled outcome of our life. It is not so difficult to find out whether we are happy or not and whether we are delighted or not.
- Let us just stand in front of the mirror and see ourselves: the joy and delight are imprinted on our faces and if we see our faces and how they look like will indicate whether we are ‘happy’ and ‘delighted’. Our face is the indicator of our heart and our feelings. Whatever takes place inside of us will be pumped out from the face and from the eyes. We are not taking about the shape or the color of the face but – the expression of the face. What we are is manifested on how we are. What is in the mind is revealed on how we speak. What is in the heart is known on the eyes. And finally, what we feel inside is known on our face. Therefore, let us examine ourselves whether we are happy and delighted at this moment as we listen now this word of God.
- Both ‘Joy and delight’ are interiorly connected: we are joyful when we are delighted (enkindled with light) and we are delightful (our faces will be shining and our heart will be rejoicing) we are joyful. Let us start how these two words are presented to us today in the readings and what they mean for us as we prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord.

First Reading:

- Prophet is the one who is sent:
o In the biblical world the prophet is one who is elected and sent for a cause in the particular context and with the particular content;
o Who is sent is not the one who sends. He only acts and talks on behalf of the one who sends him. he cannot pretend to be the actual one who is the cause of his coming;
o Who is sent is a ‘herald’ of the design of the one who sends; he has nothing to in his life or he has no meaning for his call if he does not speak out what is asked of him;
- Prophet Isaiah is the one who is sent:
o Like any prophet of the Old Testament, today we have Isaiah the prophet sent to speak what the Lord is going to do in the particular context and particular content:
o Particular context here is that the people of Israel who the Lord has chosen for himself are now under the rule of Persians; the Babylonian slavery is over and the command is taken by the Persians who made them again slaves; they have again cried out to their God to be their savior and to rescue them from this situation and release them out. The Lord who has listened to their cries of anguish and pain has come in their aid and in this context the Lord is sending his prophet to the people.
o Particular content here is that the proclamation of the liberation, and the joy with which the Lord will fill the depressed hearts of his people and the dignity of life they would enjoy in near future. About the alliance which the Lord is going to renew with them by taking them back to himself as the bridegroom takes to himself the bride; therefore, about the joy of the matrimonial union between the Lord and his people.
- The life of the ‘Sent’: in this context and the content of the message of the prophet his whole life is integrated and it is the message not only to be announced but to be lived first; therefore, the life of the one who is sent is the life lived in the Lord (therefore, personal life) and for the Lord (therefore, life for the mission yet to be completed). Here, in today’s context of Isaiah’s prophecy we can see both his personal life and his mission are interlinked: He himself is called to be first of all
o Live with joy (vv.10-11): in these verses we see the joy of the prophet in his life and that joy which comes from the Lord: “I rejoice totally in the Lord and my soul exalts in my God”. This is being joyful personally and living with the joy of the Lord. It is not the joy of his merits or his wonderful doings or his capacities or talents but he knows it that it is the Joy of the Lord; and he also gives the reason for his joy: because the Lord has
 Clothed him with the garments of salvation,
 Given him the cloak of justice, and
 Decorated him with the adornments of the wedding.
o To announce Joy (vv.1-2): the joy that is experiences within and lived is always expressed and proclaimed; here too, the prophet who is joyful is also goes out to proclaim the same Joy designed by God for his people; therefore, the prophet becomes the joyful messenger of the joyful message. He is pronouncing with joy what God has asked him announce as the ‘bringer of joyful news’:
 The good news for the poor and oppressed,
 The healing to the broken hearted,
 The liberty to the slaves and captives,
 The freedom to the prisoners; and in a word
 To proclaim the ‘year of the Lord’ – the joy of the Lord.

Second Reading:

- Paul: the messenger of Joy:
o Once touched, healed and called by Jesus on his way to Damascus, Paul has found the real joy and joy of being a Christian and joy of being a persecuted Apostle for the Christ whom he was persecuting.
o Joy of Paul is quite different from the joy of other disciples or apostles:
 other Apostles have been with Jesus, have seen him doing wonders and miracles and finally have seen him suffered-died-and resurrected and so they were full of the joy of the resurrection;
 Paul’s context and content is different; He was to defend his faith and he had to eliminate all the elements that disturb the law of the Jews including the name of Jesus Christ and the life of his followers; he was not ignorant but he was doing what he was sent to do; that was his joy to defend and safeguard the Law and Prophecy; when his authority told him that the newly come-up Christians are proclaiming Jesus and thus disrespecting their law, he thought that it was his right and his ‘joy’ to restore their faith by putting to death all these followers of Christ; only on the way to Damascus, with the intervention and interaction of Jesus, he has discovered the true joy and the joy that is really joyful;
o Man and Messenger of Joy:
 He has become a ‘man’ of joy from then on. Once he has known that the real joy was found in the person of Jesus and he has been transformed into a man of Joy; he was not afraid to live the joy that he has found in his encounter with Jesus; he lived in even in his sufferings; even the sufferings have become for him ‘the moments of experience of Joy’ in and for Christ;
 He has become also a ‘messenger’ of joy and we can find this admonition of joyful life in Christ very often in his epistles. Especially even when he was in the prison he writes to the Philippians to be joyful because we are the people of joy of Christ who died and rose again. He says, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice” (4:4) and even today’s passage from the Thessalonians demonstrate the life in the community with the joy of the Lord and he says, “Rejoice always” (v.16). in this way he has preached also ‘the joy without limits’ that can be found by accepting and living for Christ;

- Community of Joy: in the Spirit and with the prophecy of Joy:
 The Spirit is the source of joy: St. Paul tells his community not to leave the Spirit, “Do not quench the Spirit” (v.19); quenching the spirit is almost equal to ceasing to be joyful; The Spirit is the one who generates the joy in the person; It is the same with Jesus: when Jesus was filled with the Spirit he has joyfully praised his Father (Mt 11:25);
 The prophecy is all about the future joy in the Messiah: the promise of God through the prophets and the very words of the prophets is that ‘God will bring all the dispersed people into one family of joy’ and joy that would come from the salvific event in Christ. It is because of this St. Paul asks his community not to “despise the words of the prophets” (v.20). Rejecting the words of the prophets is almost equal to the neglecting and ignoring the call to be joyful.

Gospel Reading:

- Textual and contextual interpretation of the gospel passage: the testimony to the light
o Today’s gospel passage is in two parts:
 The first part is vv.6-8: John ‘sent’ by God to testify the light;
 The second part is vv.19-28: John ‘sent’ to be the voice to the Word;
o John the Baptist is the ‘man’ sent by God (v.6): this is placed in contrast to the Word that was with God and which was God; it is about the man who has his duty in a certain determined time. The recalling of John the Baptist is to make it known the whole content of the prologue, the time between the prophecy and actuality, and finally to present Jesus as the Word incarnate.
o To give testimony (v.7): the greatness of John is to be the testimony; his mission is above all is to be subordinated to that of Christ. The testimony is one of the main keys of the fourth gospel and it is in its totality ‘the testimony to Jesus’ (John 19:35; 21:24).
o He was not the light (v.8): when this gospel was written the community of John the evangelist thought of John the Baptist to be the messiah (Acts 19:2-8), (John 1:20, 27, 30, 34).
o Now we enter into the second part of the gospel passage: actually the testimony of the Baptist has taken place in two days: one, the explanation of his proper mission (1:20-28) and two, the testimony rendered to Jesus (1:29-34).
o Testimony (v.19): John is the testimony of the light (1:6-8) and now he himself gives testimony and keeps his personality in humbleness to the greatness of Jesus. Jews are nominated first time here as the depositors of the authentic tradition and from here they continue to appear every time when Jesus teach or perform some miracles and it will go on until they put him to death. Levites are the priests that are responsible to offer sacrifices and to safeguard the doctrine.
o “Who are you?” is the question that is found and repeated three times here. Though they question here to find out he is, it is not to believe and accept him but only accuse him if the fault is found with him. It happened also with Jesus a times.
o The confession of John the Baptist (v.20-21): he confesses that ‘he is not’:
 He is not the Messiah because messiah was expected to come as the descendent of David, the heir of his kingdom, announced by the prophets.
 He is not the Elijah because Elijah did not die but is taken up into heaven (2 Kings 2:11). Diverse traditions talked about his return as the annunciation of the day of the Lord, the day of judgment of the people and the foundation of the kingdom of God (Malachi 3:23-24; Sir 48:10, 11).
 He is not a prophet: they were already waiting for a prophet like Moses as was pronounced (Deut 18:15);
 In all the three instances he confesses that he is not the one they thought of him to be: he is not Messiah, Elijah and a Prophet.
o The self-identification and his mission: the voice (v.23): the text of Is 40:3 is utilized by all the evangelists and it is to define the role of the Predecessor. Only John put it in the citation on the lips of John the Baptist; he becomes the manifestation his humility (1:27). He becomes a testimony, a cry who announces someone else.
o In this way, John the Baptist manifests his identity as the testimony to the light and voice to the Word.
- John is ‘Sent’ as a prophet: his life as that of prophet Isaiah the integration both of his person and mission:
o As a person, John the Baptist, is always connected to Jesus and his mission and that’s why:
 His person is more than a prophet,
 His mission is less than Jesus because it is only a pointer that points to Jesus.
o As a life, John the Baptist, is always to liked to Jesus because he is a testimony:
 A testimony is the friend of the one whom he testifies
 A testimony that gives voice to the Word and keeps the Light on the lamp-stand.

Conclusion:

- We are called to be ‘the sent ones’:
o Though we born in the world as humans, we are ‘sent’ out into the world as Christians;
o Therefore, our human life as born in the world and our Christian life as sent out in faith are to be integrated in the same person;
o That means, our personality (what we are) and our mission (what we do) are to be combined and they are internally connected with the spirit of Christian call and vocation (because we are sent).
- We are called to live and share the joy (the first reading):
o We are called to ‘live’ in our day to day life the joy that we have received through entering into faith in Jesus and thus lead a personal life giving him praise and glory;
o We are called also to ‘proclaim’ both by our words and actions the same joy we live; because joy is contagious it cannot be contained in a small box and is hidden; it has to be shared; the nature of joy is to be joyful and make others through it joyful.
o As we prepared for the joyful event of Christmas – let us try be joyful and happy within ourselves first; and then let us spread this joy like a disease to all around us.
- Let us depart from the view of one phrase of interest for us today: “In the midst of you there is one whom you do not know” (v.26): Jesus is amidst us; his gospel is amidst us; his word and his liturgy is amidst us; his service is amidst us; his church is amidst us; but very often, as John the Baptist notices, we do not give attention to us and pretend to be not knowing; it is like a gift in the dust bin; we are given the gift of joy and gift of light and if we do not attend them and if we do not accept them they are like a wastage that is thrown into the garbage; let us recognize the presence of Jesus as the source of our joy and our delightfulness of life.
- Let us be the men and messengers of Joy and make our community an instrument of joyful singing (second reading) and for this we remind ourselves once again our theme of today: Let us light up our life with the joy of the Lord.