Gospel & Reflection for Gaudete Sunday.
Luke 3:10-18
When all the people asked John, ‘What must we do?’ he answered, ‘If anyone has two tunics he must share with the man who has none, and the one with something to eat must do the same.’ There were tax collectors too who came for baptism, and these said to him, ‘Master, what must we do?’ He said to them, ‘Exact no more than your rate.’ Some soldiers asked him in their turn, ‘What about us? What must we do?’ He said to them, ‘No intimidation! No extortion! Be content with your pay!’
A feeling of expectancy had grown among the people, who were beginning to think that John might be the Christ, so John declared before them all, ‘I baptise you with water, but someone is coming, someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandals; he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fan is in his hand to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his barn; but the chaff he will burn in a fire that will never go out.’ As well as this, there were many other things he said to exhort the people and to announce the Good News to them.
Reflection
Friends, one week ago, the highest price ever paid for a piece of movie memorabilia was reached at an auction house in Dallas, Texas. The winning bid was an astronomical $28 million, with the buyer paying an additional $4.5 million in fees to auction house. So, what piece of movie history was brought at such a price? Well, for $32.5 million, someone brought a pair of ruby coloured shoes, worn by Judy Garland in the 1939 movie ‘The Wizard of Oz’.
This time of the year was a good time to sell that item. As Christmas approaches, there is many little personal and family traditions that people keep. One of those traditions is the watching of Christmas movies. People love to rewatch particular movies at this time and one of the most popular is the classic ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ As we know it tells the story of a young girl called Dorothy and the friends she meets as she travels the ‘Yellow Brick Road’ – a Tin Man, a Scarecrow, and a Lion. Each of them lacks something. The Tin Man lacks a heart, the Scarecrow a brain and the Lion, courage. The story is about each of them finding what they needed and what they needed was found not out there ‘somewhere over the rainbow,’ they each found what they needed within them.
Finding what we need within us is what ‘Gaudete Sunday’, this Sunday for ‘rejoicing’ is all about. In our First Reading, the Prophet Zephaniah calls on a nation to “Shout for joy…shout aloud” for the Lord their God was near to them. St. Paul asks us in the Second Reading to be “Happy, happy always in the Lord.” The problem is though that it is not always possible to be happy, not always the right moment to be shouting for joy. It is easy to be happy and to rejoice when everything goes our way. But how can we possibly rejoice and be happy when things don’t go our way? Being ordered to be happy even in our lowest moments sounds very unchristian; callous and cruel if anything. Yet, our Faith calls us to joy, to rejoice, to be happy.
So, what is our Faith, what is God asking of us?
On this Sunday, we are being called not to experience or know some constant emotional soaring but to be simply able to acknowledge that in the everchanging realities of life and living, that somewhere within us, we will find the certainty of the peace and presence of Christ.
When all is great or when things are not so great; when we have tremendous, good fortune or terrible bad luck; when we are carefree or when we are weighed down by worry – in all of it, may we see Christ, may we know Christ. Confident of Christ’s presence within us, may we then have an inner perspective, an inner peace, an inner joy that nothing can alter despite what happens around us.
This inner peace, this inner certainty of God present, is what shone in the life of John the Baptist. John was passionate and angry, direct, and loud. He lived in the wilderness, had a basic diet, had no possessions and the barest of clothing, and yet to this person, people came flocking. They came looking for the secret of his inner contentment, which was as obvious as his outer rage. They ask repeatedly, each for their own reasons “What must we do?” They were looking for meaning, joy and peace, and John gave it to them by pointing the way to Christ.
Friends, Advent is our annual opportunity to find and know the presence of Christ within us. Christ is within us always and He will steer our course in all that we experience, good or bad. It is this truth that should gives us cause for joy today and always.
‘Rejoice always in the Lord, again I say, rejoice.’
Fr. Richard