3rd Sunday of Advent Year B

Some priests will not be caught dead in this chasuble but the change in colour might be a good time to speak of the joy that should express itself. What does it mean to have joy even in the midst of trials and tribulations?

The seasons of Lent and Advent have for their liturgical colour Violet. In the midst of these two seasons we discover the colour Rose. The Sundays characterised by the colour Rose are called Laetare or Gaudete. At Masses when we do not sing, we should recite the Entrance Antiphon. Both Laetare and Gaudete are translated from the respective Antiphons as “Rejoice”.

The colour Rose reveals the wisdom of the Church who perceives the coincidence of nature with the mysteries of salvation. Both light and life are the two natural phenomena of nature. From darkness and death, light and life emerge and so the change from darkness to light is captured by the season of winter and the transition from death to life is proper to the season of spring. The liturgical cycle of the Church is therefore based on these phenomena. The progressive diminishment of light and the silence of life germinating are both captured most fittingly by the colour Violet and not, surprisingly by Black. Why? Black is not really a colour. Instead, Black may be described as the absence of colour and of light, whereas, Rose which brightens the shade of Violet stands as an anticipation of the reality of the birth of Christ at Christmas and the new life of Resurrection at Easter.

The colour Rose in the midst of these two seasons places us within the mystery of the “already, and not yet” of Christian life here on earth. It leaves behind the dark of violet but it is not completely white yet. So, we have been saved and yet we wait for Christ to come. 1 Cor 13:12 says it most aptly: Now we are seeing a dim reflexion in a mirror; but then we shall be seeing face to face. This Rose of “already, and not yet” may help navigate our discipleship through this lacrimarum valle, this valley of tears.

We often hear of the three comings of the Lord. In times past, He came to us in our weakness and in our flesh. In the future, He will come again in glory and with majesty. At Christmas, He comes in Spirit and in power. Now, there is continuity or integrity at Advent whereby the three comings are at once celebrated and anticipated. We rejoice with the Prophets of old who waited for the coming of the Messiah and marvel at how His coming has made a profound difference in history. We also long for His Second Coming with the clouds of heaven so that our journey to life’s completion may come to a happy conclusion. However, there is a meantime whereby we wait for His coming more deeply into our life now, so as to prepare for His final coming.

Amongst the three comings, two are visible—in the past and in the future. The present coming is invisible and this is the one which is not easy because waiting is not an easy exercise. We are readily distracted by the cares of the world and weighed down by the burdens of life. So, Holy Mother Church dares us to hold our heads high not because of pride but because she believes with her being that salvation is near. As the colour Rose lightens the dark of Violet, we dare to rejoice because Christ’s salvation approaches us. So we are joyful that Christ can come more deeply into our lives.

As He comes, the Church encourages us to ask for the virtues of fortitude and patience. It is always easy to try to change something outside of us. You can repaint a house or renovate a kitchen. You can do up your car and decorate your house. But, the work of inner conversion requires fortitude. It is a virtue needed for our journey. Imagine the number of people who have given up hope especially with regard to a recurring sin. They think that confession once will remove their propensity to sin but their experience is otherwise. They keep failing and falling and as result they lose courage. Fortitude is the strength not to lose hope whereas patience is the ability to wait in anticipation as God works His miracle upon us. Thus, patience is fortitude over time because there is hardship involved in waiting especially when we are changing. We live in an instantaneous bubble expecting that what we want is always on tap and all we need is to press the button. But, as in all interior conversion, it is a life-long journey which often involves letting go of that which is beyond our control, a letting go which is not despairing but is full of trust in God.

Let me tell you a story of which I am not proud. But, it may give you a glimpse of how our joy is to be like. It was a Gaudete Sunday Mass. The procession started and the manner the entrance hymn was sung, I wanted to kill myself because it sucked the joy out of me. Now, you see, a lot of times our reaction to the joy being sucked out of us is to blame the other person as in “I was pissed off. You made me angry. You made me do it.”. It was difficult to shake off the annoyance whilst I was celebrating Mass. Sometimes, we may say to ourselves, “I already have a difficult day and I do not need this”… and so we justify our anger or worse our rage.  For me, as priests, these are the “reasons” for my anger or annoyance: stupid parishioners who do not seem to understand, sacristan who keeps missing out on things, choir that sings so that nobody wants to sing, altar servers who continually make the same mistakes. Objectively, there may be a lot of truth in what I have just mentioned and there is need for improvement. But, the truth is this, many a times life is never organised according to what we think it should be and whilst it can be trying, Christian joy should still be able to break through not because it is falsely optimistic. It is less emotion and more an attitude because it comes from an inner strength that is based on trust in God and support by both fortitude and patience.

Thus, fortitude and patience are needed so that joy may radiate from us even if we should stand in the shadow of the Cross. Since we cannot give of ourselves these virtues, we need to beseech the Lord for them. As the darkness of night envelops us, we know that soon light will prevail. So in the joy of fortitude and patience, we keep watch. As Christ came once before, we dare to cast our anxieties onto Him, as we wait and watch for the day when He will come again at Christmas or at the end of time.

2nd Sunday of Advent Year C

The 1st Reading is deeply sacramental. Look at how the 3 great monotheistic religions that claim common ancestry from Abraham—Judaism, Christianity and Islam—are engaged in the contestation, at times violent, for the patch of plateaux, mountains, hills and valleys called Jerusalem. The Prophet Baruch describes how the Exiled will be brought back to Jerusalem, the city of God; the place where God’s peace can be found. The etymology of its name connotes “completeness, wholeness and soundness”. Jerusalem was to be the radiating heart of the world of completeness and wholeness. Perhaps, you can discern why this constant desire to return to this city explains the sacramental character of the 1st Reading. Jerusalem is the outward sign of God’s presence in the world.

John the Baptist, in the Gospel today, cries out, “Prepare the way for the Lord and make straight His paths”. In light of the sacramental character of the 1st Reading, the place where God’s peace or wholeness is to be found is now translated into a person: the Prince of Peace. Jesus is the person where wholeness is to be located. In short, in Him, all mankind shall see the salvation of God.

In order to see God’s salvation, we must want it or we must need it. The theme this Sunday is the “Joy of Salvation”. In a world which is seemingly perfect because of our capability, it is not easy to discern how we can ever be saved or why we even need it in the first place. Since we function along the principle of efficient self-management, it is hard to comprehend the joy that comes with salvation. Thus, God cannot save if we do not need Him. And if we do not realise that we need God’s salvation, since we are made for God, the simple result is that there will always be emptiness in our hearts.

A way in which the principle of efficient self-management is worked out is a form of spiritual pride. Some of us fail to see it that way but there are times when we believe that God cannot love us because of our imperfections and our sins. You know how often we punish ourselves by thinking such? This is borne out by the reluctance to go for confessions and for good reason. People ask earnestly: “Why go for confessions when I am going to sin again?” [1] Confession, in essence, is the acknowledgement that we need God’s salvation but, for many of us, the basis for confession shows that we do not really need God. How so? For many of us, confession makes sense only if one does not sin or one is incapable of sin. And so the reason goes that “I will only go for confession if I am assured that I will not sin again. But since I cannot assure God that I will not sin again, I shall neither waste my time nor God’s time by going for confessions”. You can see that intention is good but the reasoning is spurious. If that is not spiritual pride, I don’t know what is.

Here, let me be clear that I am not making a pitch for confessions or the necessity of it. I am merely trying to explain why the apprehension concerning confession masks the spiritual pride of a generation that believes salvation is the fruit not of God’s doing but its own machination. We can manufacture our salvation. This does sound like the tagline from The Six Million Dollar Man: Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. Translated: We can rebuild ourselves without God. Does this not remind you of communism? Communism was an attempt to save mankind from itself and it tries to do it without reference to God. But, sadly, a world without God is joyless.

However, salvation brings joy or if you like, the appreciation that salvation is near brings joy. The 2nd Reading radiates the joy of the salvation which Christ brings. If you read further, you will find the context of Paul’s joy is that he writes to the Philippians even though he is in prison. Paul is in prison and yet he can still write. This is how the joy of salvation is brought home to us. For Paul to encourage the Philippians even though he is in prison shows an appreciation that no time is ever out of the scope of salvation. It is an optimism which is founded on no less than the person of Christ. In Him, all mankind shall see the salvation of God. It is the only reason why Paul can exhort the Corinthians (2 Cor 4:8ff): "We are in difficulties on all sides, but never cornered; we see no answer to our problems, but never despair; we have been persecuted, but never deserted; knocked down, but never killed; always, wherever we may be, we carry with us in our body the death of Jesus". The nearness of salvation gives us the sure hope of joy.

We live in troubled times, do we not? As The Star report states on 4th Dec that more than 304,358 people seemed to think so last year as they left the country. The Herald may have won a reprieve in the use of the word Allah but will judges who dare to stand up for judicial independence be subjugated by "routine administrative processes"? Will our need for greater transparency in governance be stymied by vested interest of a few? The depressing and disappointing list goes on.

But, we dare to labour joyfully knowing that it will not be in vain because salvation has not only been promised to us; salvation is much closer than we think. Advent’s wait is a reminder that the joy of salvation is a distinct possibility for those who embrace Christ. Every valley will be filled in, every mountain and hill be laid low, winding ways will be straightened and rough roads made smooth because only in Christ shall mankind come to know the fullness of salvation. Advent is ever pregnant with joy.

FOOTNOTE:
[1] Sometimes the contrary is true. It is not the fact that one will sin again that makes us reluctant to go for confession. Sometimes we feel that our sin is so big that we feel ourselves hopeless. We are in effect saying that God’s mercy is not big enough for our sins; God is not bigger than our sins.