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Scripture Reflection for the Third Sunday of Advent 2002 by LeRoy Clementich, CSC The scriptures:
It strikes me that all of us might profit from these suggestions inasmuch as few of us are in total or even partial charge of our lives. We live at the whims of the world around us, some human, but many also purely natural. Given those uncontrollable circumstances, we still need to find some peace and tranquility in our lives or, in the spirit of this Sunday's scriptures; we simply need to learn to live with joy. I do not mean to say humor (ha ha) necessarily, but simply a sense of calmness, composure, and harmony. The reality of life is that we are part of the unfinishedness of all creation and being ready to accept that condition will make life at least a little more bearable. I have also found that life is not simply a matter of being stuffed in a corner without access to hope. The fact is, we can take charge of our lives, we can move in any direction we feel will give us a sense that there is something that can be accomplished "out there" and that life is not "just one darn thing after another." As the philosophers would say: There is meaning in the universe if you wish to discover it. God is in the meaning of things and is simply waiting for us to uncover that meaning. So, it all adds up to the question, what do we do while waiting? What do we do while the world around us is preventing us from accomplishing what we have set our hearts to? This may sound over simplified, but I have found that in most circumstances one can take up an activity that will contribute to one's human intellectual, and spiritual development. By that I mean, we can take charge of "slack time". In short, we can read, we can reflect, we can meditate, we can concentrate, we can be quiet, peaceful and let God take over. We don't always need to be busy about life, pretending that we are in charge and then becoming angry when we find that we are not. The point I am making is that waiting (that Advent virtue) is not simply a forced vacuum in which we sit. Waiting itself is filled with innumerable opportunities for human and spiritual growth. In short, waiting can be a spiritual experience. Indeed, waiting can be an experience of joy, of human fulfillment ... that is, if we take charge. Given all that we have said thus far, therefore, it is interesting that we have considerable support for joyful waiting in the scripture lessons chosen for this Third Sunday in Advent season. The word joy itself surfaces several times. Those of us who are old enough to remember the days before the Second Vatican Council know that we had various signs in the liturgy that helped us experience that sense of joy. They may seem superficial to us today, but they had a way of reminding us that this was not Ordinary Time anymore': The presider at Mass wore rose-colored vestments (not pink, by the way). One candle in the Advent wreath was also rose colored. All these were meant to help us understand that in this semi-penitential season there was room for joy. I suspect though that in those days of our liturgical naiveté we felt that the reason for our joy was the swift-approaching feast of Christmas. Who could not be happy about that? But my hunch is that there is a deeper reason for Advent Joy than simply considering it as an introduction to Christmas, important as that feast might be. The answer comes from our Advent patron saints, Isaiah the prophet and John the Baptist, another prophet. Notice what they consider important for their times: Bringing glad tidings (joy again) to the poor, healing brokenhearted people, proclaiming liberty to captives, release to prisoners. In short, doing what God would do, were God close by. Those suggestions of Isaiah may sound out of date, but there are people in every age, including our own, who are poor, who are brokenhearted, people in prison, even in the prisons of their own despair. Hence, if there is any reason for joy, it would flow from our efforts in our own times to do what Isaiah did in his. And then to John the Baptist: Is there any joy forthcoming from his rough and strident preaching? It might not seem so, but, once again, it appears to me that we could find some satisfaction (joy) in doing just what he did, namely to shout, to protest, to cry out against the evils of our times, straightening out the Lord's way, as John did. Obviously, all that involves action, hard work, not simply sitting around waiting for someone better equipped to accomplish such things. But that is where joy flows from, that is, from our conviction that something can and must be done in our times to make our world a better place to live. Isn't that where joy flows from, from knowing that, little as it may seem, we did something to set things aright in the small world we know best, we protested, we cried out, we raised our voices. All that may sound like a tough way to achieve a little joy in life because most of us often think of joy as a kind of easy-going humorous attitude. (ha ha) but my sense is that the kind of human activity that gives us the deepest, the most long lasting joy is over something we can be proud of, something in life we felt we had changed, even in a small way. That is not something we might think humorous, laughable, but it is surely something that could give us a deep sense of satisfaction, a conviction that something in life is now better because we thought enough about it to cry out. I have a hunch also that such Joy will carry us all the way to Christmas, when we can look back and say: The world is a little better prepared for Jesus coming. Thanks be to God for that.
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