Sunday Sermon: The Christmas joy is at hand!

The liturgy of the third Sunday is based on the following readings: Isaiah 61:1-2, 10-11; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 and John 1:6-8, 19-28. The entire liturgy of this Sunday prepares us for the Christmas joy. A Christian joy based on our Christian identity, our mission and salvation. The three readings have the following message in common: ‘Rejoice because the Lord is near.’ This is not a usual superficial happiness, because the feast day of Christmas and all the ceremonies, but the real joy of our personal salvation, our personal identity as Christians and called for salvation. In the Gospel, Luke is talking of the salvation that is the glad tidings of all the people. (Lk.2:16). The first readings talks of the Christmas joy as a joy for the poor and the lowly. This has something to do with the Christian identity. The people to whom the good news is announced have a particular readiness for salvation, because they trust in God in the first place. This kind of faith and trust in God opens Christians to a true appreciation of their essential powerlessness in the eyes of God. They start mistrusting all earthly possession and human means as limited. Hence they become the prime candidates for the glad tidings of the gospel. Not because they adore poverty which is in itself an evil to fight, but because they judge all things differently. That is how Mary of Nazareth stands out among the poor and humble of the Lord: In front of God, she thinks of herself as simply a maidservant of the Lord. But at the same time she knows how lucky she is when she ponders over the wonderful things God has worked in her. She feels in herself the power, the greatness that makes her feel humble. It is this God-given self-awareness which fills her with joy (Lk 1:38.47-49). That is the kind of feeling each Christian should get when he or she meditates on his or her Christian identity. We have another example of John the Baptist. He too had a clear idea of his identity, rooted in the word of God. However flattering the world was to him, he continued to think of himself as ‘ a voice in the desert’ and his mission as to ‘prepare the way of the Lord’. That is how each Christian should re-discover himself or herself as we approach Christmas, shading off any kind of pretence. The question we must continue to pose is “Will the real me please stand up!” Knowing our real Christian identity is a great source of Christmas joy. Knowing who we are and the kind of mission we have, protects us from confusing joy with fame, fun, and pleasure as we walk toward the signpost announcing true Christmas happiness. Our problem today, is that we desperately look for happiness in all the wrong places. Our technological society has succeeded in multiplying the opportunities for pleasure, but it has great difficulty in generating joy. For joy comes from another source. It is spiritual and not material. In all we do, Christian salvation should remain our main goal. And this is our mission as well because with our baptism, we too became the apostles of the new evangelization. And every Christian should feel convinced that he or she is an apostle by baptism. This liturgy urges us to ask ourselves one of the hard questions to answer. Who am I? The questioner is at the same time the question. That is how we find our reason to be outside ourselves. It is only when we situate ourselves in the truth surrounding us, that we can see and appreciate in the right perspective who God is and the one sent to us. The gospel is a marvellous instrument for this, because it is a living book, constantly actualized, because through the word of God, Christ himself speaks to those who listen to his words now. Listening to him today makes us ask ourselves the objective of our life. It helps us to have a clear sense of our identity, which is deeply rooted in the gospel. That is how the Advent reality shows us that creatures, clearly insufficient; loved by our Creator, with a Father’s love that surpasses our wildest dreams; that we are sinners, but saved sinners; that we have a mission in life; that we exist and in God’s plan. Such awareness is the foundation of the lasting joy of salvation.