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The transition from John to Jesus makes a stopover this Sunday with a person whose importance is often understated—St Joseph. As we slide toward Christmas, we are guided by his experience. While there may be next to nothing said about him, whatever little that is mentioned illustrates for us that his “I” is more than an “I, me and myself”. The 4th Sunday of Advent rightly belongs to St Joseph.
The biblical journey thus far has been God teasing out His purpose for humanity. In this symphony of salvation, the plan is brought to fruition through the cooperation of a maiden. In the 1st Reading, even though wicked King Ahaz feigned humility in not wanting to test God, the Lord through Isaiah gave a prophecy. The proof of God’s protection will come from a maiden with child. Considering the historical period where a woman’s status is dependent on a man, the plan cannot have come to fruition if Joseph did not collaborate. Betrothed to Mary, he discovered her with child. The first clue that God’s plan could go ahead was Joseph’s desire to spare Mary from embarrassment and to protect her unborn Child. An unwed pregnancy would have resulted in a woman being stoned to death and with that the child would have died in her womb. Even though the status of a betrothal is as good as being married, still Joseph did not react in revenge. A just or honourable man he was but more was needed. More than the protection of Mary’s dignity, more than sparing the Baby in the womb, God wanted Joseph to take Mary into his home so that the Child could be given his name.
Given that there is scant said of St Joseph, it is natural that we think of Jesus more in terms of Mary. After all, Joseph is often described of as the foster father of Jesus. But Joseph’s role is not insignificant. While Mary may have shaped Jesus in the womb, Joseph shaped Him to be the Man He is.
At the top of his qualities, apart from being a man of honour, Joseph was also a man of purity. Betrothal and subsequent marriage presume that conjugal relationship is the norm. However, the answer of Mary to the Angel’s message may be an indication that she had intended to remain a virgin. “How can it be since I know no man?” makes no sense since she was going to be married to a man. It would be better if Mary’s response be framed this way: “How can it be since I intend to remain a virgin in marriage?”. In this marriage to a woman who desires to remain a virgin, we recognise in Joseph a man whose faithfulness to God and to Mary is rooted in his virtue and manly strength of purity. In this pleasure-seeking age, Joseph’s abstinence or self-control sounds rather weak and almost unbelievable because we live in an age of pornography and wide-spread immorality. Jesus mingled with women of all kinds and the masculinity of Joseph can be seen in how He treated women with proper decorum and respect.
Secondly, Joseph must have been a man of patience. Once he embraced his mission, he played the supporting role of doing what was necessary in order that God’s plan could unfold in its time. A man who listens to and obeys God learns how to be patient especially under trial. Think of Jesus who was always patient when it came to sinners. The woman caught in adultery and waiting to be stoned to death encountered a Christ who patiently waited for the crowd to expend its energy before putting everyone in his place. He consistently sought out sinners so that they could be brought back to the fold.
Finally, Joseph was a man of prudence—a virtue in such a short supply these days. When achievement is our target, we can become actors without realising that in every circumstance, there is another actor, God. The angel who appeared to Joseph told him to quickly remove the child and His mother and to flee to Egypt. In an age of self-motivation and personal dream-pursuing, such a hasty retreat would be counter-intuitive to how we would normally act. But Joseph did not think twice. He uprooted and went. Suppose if he had stayed, Herod would have killed the Child. No Jesus to save us and God’s plan would have been stymied. Joseph, in fleeing was not a coward. The same prudence was observed in Jesus. He chose His battles with the authorities who were trying to kill Him. He wisely stayed away because the time for the realisation of His mission was not up.
These are just samples of qualities from a man deeply in touch with God and who trusted God. Trusting God’s will and putting it into action is not easy. For God’s purpose to be fulfilled, trust in Him is paramount. We have much to learn from both Mary and Joseph in the area of trusting God.
As we approach 25th December, the warm fuzzy Christmassy feelings increase. Of course, we should appreciate what the season represents. He came, we commemorate. He is here, we celebrate. He will come again, we anticipate. However, the best Christmas cheer is not found in the choice cuisine, not the celestial choir, and definitely not in the chic clothing. In fact, St Joseph reminds us that in honouring the first Christmas, the conditions that brought about the Incarnation and the birth of Christ are anything but fuzzy and warm.
For God’s plan to succeed, it requires our human cooperation and that is often entangled in sticky situations. Sometimes when a tragedy strikes, we reason it as being the wrong person, in the wrong place and at the wrong time. But if we delve into it, there are no such things as wrong person, wrong place and wrong time. Joseph was right where he should be, for without him, there would be no Jesus. Yes, Mary gave birth to Christ the Son of God. But the plan of God needed Joseph too. While Advent is a preparation for the coming of Christ, it is also a preparation to accept God’s will, like Joseph did. He collaborated with God and became a part of His plan of salvation.
In the bigger picture of redemption, Joseph’s “I” was more than an “I, me and myself relentlessly pursuing my personal happiness or self-fulfilment”. Instead, his “I” sprang from the soil of deep faith. Mary’s “fiat” gave us Jesus. But Joseph’s “yes” was equally a vital component of God’s divine purpose for humanity. In this week as we run up to Christmas, may the faith of Joseph guide us. He has shown us that in God’s magnificent plan for salvation, no one is ever the wrong person, in the wrong place and at the wrong time. As Joseph entered the world of God, he made a world of a difference for all humanity. Likewise, Advent is our preparation to enter into God’s universe and each time we say yes to Him, we also become the difference that the Son of God had come to realise and bring about.
What do you wish for your child’s future? I suppose whatever lies ahead, it would have to be coloured by success, right? So, what marks success and how is it measured? The switch in the shade of our vestment is a good opportunity to survey the landscape of what a good future should look like. Firstly, the lightening of purple to a rosy tinge is an indication that the sombre spirit of penitential preparation will soon give way to the exhilaration that salvation is upon us. The entrance antiphon clearly exhorts us to rejoice always in the Lord for He is near.
We rejoice this Sunday because we are also making a transition from John to Jesus. This last Old Testament prophet stands in stark contrast to the one to whom he is the precursor. Everything about John suggests of material misery—isolation from social contact, eating wild honey with locusts and donning hair shirts. Precisely in his nothingness, John is said to be the prophet of joy. In Elizabeth’s womb, upon hearing the voice of the Mother of the Lord, he leapt for joy, thrilled by the proximity of man’s salvation. Years later, at the sight of Jesus in the desert, he rejoices that the Bridegroom has finally arrived. He even encourages his disciples to follow Christ over him.
Yet today’s Gospel shows a different John—a man suffering a crisis of confidence. Arrested, gaoled and in solitary confinement, news of his cousin’s ministry trickled in. Who is this Jesus whose behaviour appears outside the norms of a Messiah?
In response to John’s query, Jesus points to the future as illustrated by Isaiah which John’s disciples themselves could witness. The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, the Gospel is proclaimed to the poor. Jesus may not be as fiery as Elijah was but He definitely fits the bill of the one whom the world has been waiting for. Indeed, happy the man who does not lose faith in Him. One can picture a John relieved by a realisation that the future has already begun. That is a moment of joy for John.
We may not have fully realised the ideals of Isaiah but we are on the way there. Thus, joy flows from the certainty that we are on the path to salvation. It is more than being happy. It is certainly greater than pleasure because a person under stress, persecuted, tested to the full, can still remain joyful. Sadly, our philosophy of success is geared toward a fulfilment which is at best, psychological or at most, physical. For example, one can be happy from having achieved something great. If not, success can also mean arriving at a stage in life where we can have the best of all things. Remember the rich man who decided that the best way to mark his accomplishments was to build a bigger barn so that he can enjoy his harvest. Happiness or material well-being are good but when they become the goal of life, they do not lead to greater joy.
Joy is more profound than happiness and pleasure. In fact, those who have discovered joy can forgo physical pleasure. They can withstand suffering. Is it any wonder why virginity or celibacy are so misunderstood today only because we have forgotten what joy is? We have somewhat conflated joy with both happiness and pleasure. As a result, the absence of pleasure is almost a condemnation of one’s existence which explains how euthanasia has become such a viable option. What is the point living when there is no pleasure? When healthcare applies the standard “quality of life”, it does not consider that joy can be intangible. Instead, it looks at qualities which are measurable either psychologically or physically. In a way, we are condemned to dull ourselves with “narcotics” of all kinds, from adrenalin rushes to pain-numbing drugs to food bingeing, to carnal indulgences.
It is possible to live without pleasure or even happiness but it impossible to live without joy. When pleasure becomes the goal of existence, then to live without sensible satisfaction is almost analogous to death. When gratification is the aim of our seeking, we shall never discover joy. Why? Because joy can only be discovered when there is sublimation meaning that there is purification involved. To illustrate, think of a beautiful object which we may characterise as sublime. Its beauty draws us up. Now visualise a helicopter in a mission to rescue a person trapped on the rooftop of a burning building and is in mortal danger. The helicopter hovers above, lowers the ladder and as the man climbs the ladder, he is weighed down by bags. How to be saved when the bags hinder the man’s ascent? Salvation requires letting go of the bags. In like manner, to achieve the sublime, what is required is sublimation. Another word is purification.
Pleasure is a good which we should appreciate but it must never be the goal of life. For when one has found joy, it is possible to leave behind everything in order to “enjoy”, which is, to be taken up by joy. Like the man who finds the priceless pearl, selling away everything he has in order to purchase the pearl. Sadly, awash in materialism, we continue to mistake joy with happiness or pleasure that material goods can supply. One of the challenges we face has to do with living for a future in which we deny ourselves what is good now for what will be better later. But so far, the road to fulfilment is to give in to whatever pleasures there are which can makes us “happy” even though momentarily.
John is truly a prophet of joy because he sees himself best in the shadow of the Bridegroom. Now that He has arrived, John knows that he is no longer needed. Such a sentiment can only be expressed by someone who has found true joy in being who he is, a precursor. Nothing more. Nothing less. By present standard, John would have been classified an abject failure. He has no material gains to show for his success. In fact, celibates and virgins share the same kind of lack. But they, like John, are actually pointers of joy. Success is neither heightening our pleasure nor increasing our happiness. Instead, success is deepening our joy. In the ancient tradition of the Church, two categories of people, virgins and celibates, teach us, by their very denial of the goods that life offers, direct our attention to the truth that success is wherever Christ is found.
The liturgy echoes this repeatedly throughout the weeks of Advent: “Teach us to judge wisely the things of earth and hold firm to the things of heaven”. A successful future is not automatically rosy even as the colour of the vestment suggests so. Instead, it is proposed by the collect of the 1st Sunday of Advent as the “resolve to run forth to meet His Christ” whose coming we are preparing for. Perhaps this Christmas, we can take delight that the rosy hue symbolises the joy that only Christ can give. The greatest success in life is neither wealth nor happiness but the joy of possessing Christ.
This Sunday belongs to John the Baptist. The precursor to the Messiah announces the coming of the Kingdom and set it within the context of repentance. The future reign will be different from what we know thus far. The King will restore fairness to a world which has not known true justice. The scenario painted by Isaiah may possibly be the inspiration for our familiar Lion King. Different animals co-exist with each other as the Psalms remind us that justice shall flourish and there will be peace till the moon fails.
In the midst of this heart-warming picture of the future, John the Baptist stands as a sobering voice. He points out that the road towards that Kingdom must begin with repentance. The context is helpful. Here in the desert, he attracts a crowd. From Jerusalem to Judaea, they converge on this voice in the desert because they are keenly mindful of their sinfulness. To the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the holy elite and the powerful intellectuals, who feel themselves above the rest, the Baptist addresses them without mincing his words. He calls them a brood of vipers. As the Kingdom is close at hand, he offers them a path to redemption through the forgiveness of sin.
Imagine the crowd gathered around the Baptist, confessing their sins as they enter the waters of the Jordan symbolically to be washed clean of their sins. Each one of us is familiar with this route. Now, you would think that this path describes our baptism but it does not. Instead, the dilemma is that we may have forgotten their confession at baptism is akin to our Sacrament of Penance.
Has Confession fallen into disuse? Given that John announced that we should repent, maybe we should take a look at our approach to the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (#1084) states that “Seated at the right hand of the Father and pouring out the Holy Spirit on His Body which is the Church, Christ now acts through the Sacraments He instituted to communicate His grace”. Briefly, this statement can be summarised as: the Sacraments are the actions of Christ done through the Church.
This means that even in the present, every Sacrament is an action of Christ. In the past He called, strengthened, fed, forgave, healed and sent. Today He continues to call (through Baptism), to strengthen (through Confirmation), to feed (through the Eucharist), to forgive (in Confession), to heal (through anointing) and to send. These 6 actions of Jesus gives us the 7 Sacraments because His mission to the world is effected through the Sacraments of Matrimony and Holy Orders.
We may need to reappraise our approach to one of the most difficult Sacraments. The usual excuse is why the need for the agency of men if one can confess directly to God. The same excuse cannot hold up when we discuss the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Just imagine a situation that the entire congregation is gathered for Mass and the priest collapses and dies just after making the sign of the Cross. The celebration would have to be suspended. No man would dare put himself forward in place of the deceased priest. Why?
Agency. And not just any agency but that the Eucharist for its validity requires the Sacrament of Holy Orders. This negates the argument against human agency when it comes to Confession. In fact, the entire Sacramental system we have is based wholly on the principle of agency, instrumentalisation or mediation. It is derived from the fundamental as well as historical event that set creation on the course of salvation. In the fullness of time God sent His Son. How? Through the event called the Incarnation. “The Word became Flesh” has the meaning that salvation is mediated through the instrumentalisation or the agency of human nature.
Without the Incarnation, there are no Sacraments to speak of. If Christ did not take flesh, He would have to save us in another manner. It is precisely through the principle of agency that Christ continues to feed us with His Body and Blood and forgive our sins in Confession. No one has ever heard of anyone, taking Holy Water and pouring over his or her own head, recite the formula, “I baptise myself in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”.
Perhaps our dilemma with regard to human agency in Confession is more psychological than spiritual? Meaning that we actually believe in God’s forgiveness but we are more fearful of the priest’s judgement? So, we stay away from Confession because we are too ashamed, not of our sins, but of facing another human person, and being vulnerable to him.
This psychological barrier is not entirely the challenge we have when it comes to the Sacrament of Confession. Perhaps it is more subtle as it exposes the inconsistency of our personal belief in the Church’s Sacramental system. On the one hand, we believe the Eucharist to be the Body of Christ truly, really and substantially. We come to daily Mass most religiously and we receive Holy Communion most reverently. But with regard to the Sacrament of Confession, we hesitate.
Call it a psychological barrier but actually to receive Holy Communion regularly and religiously but never go for Confession even once a year is to engaged in a performative contradiction. Why? To believe that the Bread and Wine becomes the Body and Blood of Christ through the agency of a priest but staying from Confession, for whatever reason, runs the danger of reducing the Eucharist to a cypher. It cannot be that one believes that this particular action of Christ (the Eucharist) gives life while at the same time refrains from another action (Confession) that also gives life.
Our problem is also compounded by a modern liturgical development. When should one go for Confession? At least once a year is the canonical response. But this is tied to the obligation of receiving Holy Communion at least once a year. We go for Confession not only when we are conscious of grave sin but also because we want to uproot venial sins from our lives. But what has happened is that Confessions have been grouped into penitential services. By doing this, we may have severed the connexion between sin and forgiveness. With this link broken, penitential services has become a matter of convenience, not a matter of repentance. This is not the problem of the laity but of the Church. By delaying confession, we may have rendered sin unimportant and repentance superfluous.
When there is no need for repentance and the forgiveness of sin, then the Sacrament of the Eucharist is nothing more than a health supplement. This is our predicament, a hint that we are living in a therapeutic society. Almost everyone receives Holy Communion habitually but so few go for confession regularly. Some may be squirming in the seats but the fact that few avail themselves of Confession here is not a proof that nobody goes for it. For all we know, everyone is diligently and regularly going for Confession in CIC, St Joseph in Plentong, St Theresa in Masai. However, if a person rarely goes for Confession but regularly receives Holy Communion, then the point made here is that there is an inconsistency in behaviour.
Should you go for Confession this Advent? The answer is obvious after all the Baptist has asked everyone to make straight the Lord’s path. But there is another response to this question. If you are not a psychopath or a pathological liar, then lying would presumably make you uncomfortable. The gap between what we profess and how we act is a form of lying or dishonesty. In general, our instinct is such that we all yearn for the authenticity of matching what we say with what we do. Provided that we are not compulsive liars, the fact is nobody wants to be a liar. Anyone who lives a lie knows how that feels.
Confession fallen into disuse merely demonstrates that our approach to the Sacraments may be a kind of dishonesty or disbelief. Why? Our belief is that He comes to us through human mediation when He gives us His Body and Blood. But where is our belief in mediation when it comes to His forgiveness? Either He does and therefore He is powerful or we have become selective. The result is that God is not as powerful as we profess Him to be. Or what is worse is that the Communion we receive, no matter what we profess, is no more than a piece of dry and bland wafer. That is the most inconvenient truth of our inconsistency. Believing in one action of Christ and not the other renders what we believe in, empty. Sometimes we do hear the lament about the loss of reverence for the Eucharist. The lack can easily arise because we do not know how to respect the Eucharist and that is ignorance. But closer to the truth, the reality of the loss of reverence for the Eucharist is that essentially we no longer believe in the power of the Sacrament of Confession.
Christ is powerful in His Sacraments because they are His personal actions mediated through the agencies of the Holy Spirit and the Church. When there is a discrepancy in our belief, the temptation is to augment His Sacraments by programmes and formation. Consistency in our belief and practice is the key to the efficacy of both the Sacraments of Confession and Communion. Christmas is around the corner. Should one go for Confession? The Baptist would say so. But more in character with who we are as decent people, we should narrow the gap between what we believe and what we do so that our reception of Him at Communion or at Christmas can be more authentic and our witnessing to Him more persuasive.
The beginning of the liturgical calendar is called Advent for a good reason. We initiate the new year with a period of preparation, all for the coming of Christ. But His coming is more than just an event in the past. St Bernard Clairvaux described it beautifully, “We know that the coming of the Lord is threefold…The first coming was in flesh and weakness, the middle coming is in spirit and power, and the final coming will be in glory and majesty”.
Yes, Advent is linked to the first Christmas in Bethlehem. But as the popular song suggests, “Christmas isn’t Christmas till it happens in your heart”, it would also mean that Christmas is a spiritual coming because Christ has to take flesh in the heart of the believer. Our entire earthly existence is essentially an exercise in enabling Him to take flesh in our hearts so that when He comes again at the “Eschaton” in His full sovereignty and splendour, those who remain, to best of their best ability and in cooperation with His grace, will greet Him joyfully. The focus of the last few Sundays before and up to the Solemnity of Christ the King, had been to remind us that this end is real and it behoves us to be prepared for it and it brings us to the next point.
We can get lost in remembering the first Christmas if our focus were on the historical commemoration. In fact, some places would already begin their remembrance as soon as the month hits “-ber”, that is, September. This country is a little more circumspect in the sense that we need to allow Deepavali to be over first before trotting out the Christmas decorations; the respectful delay has nothing to do with religious reverence. On the other hand, with regard to the future, in general, we are having a such good time that we mostly ignore the final coming because nobody expects it to come that soon. For a short while though, as Covid raged on, the world that we were familiar with appeared as if it were coming to its end and it almost felt like we were facing the “Eschaton”. Now in this presumably post-pandemic period, the idea of the end is practically off-radar as people are rushing to break free, afflicted as it were by “travel revenge”.
Nostalgia or making up for lost time notwithstanding, we cannot escape the reality that the world is truly unwell. It is not just the disrupted global supply chain or the mental health crisis triggered by an imposed isolation. It is not even the failed “Cop27” summit in which the more advanced economies accept the need to compensate poorer countries but cannot agree on the quantum. Civilisation is unwell because evil continues to rear its ugly head in the way people and countries are still exploited. Think of the recent collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX with emerging stories of sinister lies and secrets. We are never short of scandals. That evil men continue to prosper as if there were no justice in the world is instructive.
The whole idea that Christ died to save us and yet man remains stuck in the quagmire of wrongdoings should lead us to conclude that salvation is an ongoing process. The Incarnation ushered in the salvation that the world had been waiting for since the fall of our first parents. However, the manner evil shows no sign of abating just proves that salvation is awaiting completion. The Kingdom of God has been inaugurated but it is still on the pilgrimage to its fulfilment. It makes sense that Church on earth is also called the Church militant. The war has been won by Christ’s death and resurrection but the battle continues with the effort to stamp the seal of the Kingdom on creation.
The world can definitely be a better place. Isaiah in the 1st Reading paints a picture of a time when true peace will descend upon the earth. The most engaging imagery is that “they will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks or sickles”. While the legions of social-justice warriors and the army of woke-sensitive movements have been enamoured by this possibility, what is sad is the idea that such a vision could be achieved or accomplished without God.
On the other hand, St Paul exhorted the Romans to walk into the light. It is not simply the light of some humanistic principles. Instead, live like a people illuminated by the Light of Christ. With Him, even in the midst of the darkest day, we can still live as a people of hope, believing and trusting that God will never fail us. Such an attitude fits in with the Gospel. God is not playing hide and seek only to spring a surprise on us. The truth of the matter is that life is contingent; it is unpredictable this side of time. Our life is never in our control. A wisdom of the "Eschaton" is to live as if today were to be our last day here on earth.
We are future-oriented when it comes to mundane matters but not so with spiritual security. A child who shows a little musical inclination is immediately enrolled in a school for music. Yet the same child who may express a desire to be a priest is not taken seriously. He is too young, he has not experienced life yet. These are just two excuses for ignoring a child’s possible vocation. The point is, in matters spiritual, we suffer from the sickness of procrastination believing that we still have time. There is yet time to change. Try clearing out the room of a priest and you will appreciate the meaning of “unfinished business”. The same is possibly repeated with our family members.
The preparation of Advent is not just to commemorate the birth of Christ. It includes being watchful and being attentive to the different movements of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The purple of Advent is a good reminder that a regular spring cleaning of the soul is good and necessary. How can swords be hammered into ploughshares if there were no spiritual preparation made now for the future?
That future begins today. Last week, I mentioned about regularly renewing our resolve to follow Christ the King and for that singular purpose, He has not left us unaided. He gave us His Sacraments, notably Confession and Eucharist. If we give them some thoughts, Christ is already coming to us in these two great Sacraments. He comes into our hearts most especially when we receive Holy Communion which makes every Mass a Christmas.
In conclusion, preparing for Christmas should be more than an exercise in nostalgia. We recall the first Christmas by rejoicing that He came. For He is the Light that mankind had been waiting for. We also acknowledge a future when He will come again to gather all into the fullness of eternity. In reminiscing on the past, we look to that future with a readiness that at any moment He makes His appearance, we are prepared in every sense of the word. This is the vigilance that the Lord expects of us and we are watchful because we have a soul to care for.
