Email Guidelines Dara's Homilies Third Sunday of Advent ‘Gaudate Sunday' by Fr. Dara O'Brien
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Isaiah 35:1-6,10 ; James 5:7-10 ; Matthew 11:2-11
MEDITATION:
The readings this Sunday ask us to be patient and joyful as we approach Christmas. It's the third of the four Sundays of Advent (known as Gaudate Sunday with regard to the beginning of the joyful atmosphere of Christmas).
We celebrate in memory of what happened centuries ago in Bethlehem, but also in anticipation of a new birth of the love of Christ in our world. It's relevant that St John the Baptist sends his disciples to ask Jesus if he is the Messiah and to confirm the miraculous signs. John represents the summit of all the prophets of the Old Testament, and the second reading of James asks us to look on him as an example for us, but the Gospel today is proclaiming that the door is opening to the New Testament. We know now that Jesus was going to begin the New Testament, and that he brought the Good News (Gospel), but are we really open to the birth of new things in our individual lives? Are we extremely conservative or are we 'open' Christians? The Trinity want us to faithfully care for the things that they've already given us, but also to be open to new things. Jesus asks us to obediently accept whatever our Church tells us, but he also asks us to be people of personal prayer.
In this world where people worry so much about the way they look and their luxuries, John is a good example of escape from that 'prison'. The television coming up to Christmas will advertise nice clothes and luxuries to buy, but Jesus praises John in the desert dressed in old skin of camels and eating the fine food of dead locusts! It's not a call to be 'masochists' and to feel proud for having avoided selfish pleasures and riches, but it's a call to be free. If healthy pleasures come your way, enjoy them and give thanks, but if they don't come, don't be upset. On the contrary, give thanks for the air you breathe and for the way Jesus frees us of selfishness. The birth for which Christ really longs is the birth of a Christian family of generous love. Enjoy receiving Christmas presents, but enjoy even more giving them if you can. Enjoy the 'get-togethers' of Christmas as signs of our future destiny as the happy family of God.
We will end up giving much thanks to God and perhaps singing Christmas carols beautifully in Heaven - with John the Baptist dancing around us and passing out 'caviar' to everyone! If we can avoid the 'caviar' of the modern world (the riches, honours and selfish pleasures), then the Love of God may indeed be born in us and this Christmas may be the new beginning of an eternal Christmas.
Isaiah tells today of the whole of creation 'singing' a nice song etc. but we've got to look and listen well in order to appreciate it. Perhaps the Gospel describing Jesus healing the deaf and the blind is referring to all of us: if we welcome the Word of God as a companion for life, then we will begin to see and hear differently. I'm in a wheelchair but my heart can leap like a deer and my tongue will keep singing (first reading Is 56:6) - as long as I don't crack any Christmas windows with my sclerotic voice! Be strong, because your God is coming. Open the door - hosanna!
....... Dara.
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