The Entangled Moment of Joy:
The Third Sunday of Advent, 2023
December 17, 2023
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Isaiah 61:1-11; Luke 1; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24; John 1:6-8, 19-28
The Christmas story begins to take shape with today’s Gospel as John the Baptist steps off the stage as a prominent actor to give way to Jesus of Nazareth. John knows he is important in preparing the hearts of the people to receive the message that Jesus brings, and he knows his time is over. He can leave his ministry satisfied that he did his job well and knowing that God’s plan is being revealed. John can only rejoice to see the unfolding of divine events that he does not yet understand.
Isaiah outlines the events of God’s in-breaking presence: a time of jubilee, a time of justice and praise. It is a time of rejoicing because the good news of God’s reign will be preached to people of goodwill. What is this good news? – That God chooses us. God chooses to be with us, and God wants us to know this on a personal level. We cannot just let Christmas happen to us, but we must experience it. In one sense, we cannot just put up our Bethlehem creches and Nativity figurines and just admire the scene. In our prayer, we must pick up the infant Jesus and hold him in our arms, just as we would any newborn, and bring him close to our chest. Too often, we hold him at arm’s length, but this encounter means that we must reach out, heighten our senses, and pour our hearts into this tiny child. We must know that he belongs to us and we to him. We must become entangled with him from the very start and fill him with our love. God is at the very depths of all that exists.
God is the future fulness of life to which we and all life are drawn. God is love, and we are continuously invited to rise up from a life that has been battered down so that we can love anew. God is always ready to forgive, to forget, to embrace, and to move forward to an unknown future. This is the good news that Jesus brings – to heal the brokenhearted, to liberate those who are bound by being closed-minded, and to set people free from the bondage to which they hold themselves bound. Christmas is about bringing light to the psychological, emotional, and spiritual brokenness that we experience.
We celebrate Christmas each year so that we continue to expand our consciousness. As Christmas is the victory of light over darkness, we must see light as consciousness. Expanding our consciousness means that we must be open to growth, which means wrestling with idea that might be uncomfortable for us. It means giving new ideas a chance and to see where God is in the midst of all of life’s messiness. It means allowing insights to inform us so that we are led to places we did not think was possible. Evolution is about moving forward into God’s reign with confidence and joy. The one who runs to meet God in the unknown is the one who is filled with greater understanding and compassion. Evolution means that we have fewer answers than questions, but our quest for God, our quest for unity and transcendence fills us with the joy described in the readings. We rejoice because we are on the quest. We rejoice because we are created to know more deeply and to love more intensely, and when we are on this track, we are filled with rightness that our deeper pursuits will help us find God.
In the Incarnation, we find God in a newborn infant, a son who is born to us. Christmas is the intermingling and intertwining of divine life with created and human life. God and we are bound together for eternity. This is the reason we rejoice. God has come to be with us closer than we ever could have imagined. And we smile and rejoice.
Scripture for Daily Mass
Monday: (Zechariah 2) Rejoice, O daughter Zion. I am coming to dwell among you. The Lord will possess Judah and he will again choose Jerusalem.
Tuesday: (Zephaniah 3) On that day, I will change and purify their lips that they may call upon the name of the Lord. You shall not exalt yourself on my holy mountain.
Wednesday: (Isaiah 45) I am the Lord; there is no other; I form the light and create the darkness. Turn to be and be safe all you ends of the earth for I am the Lord, your God.
Thursday: (Isaiah 54) Raise a glad cry, you barren one who did not bear, break forth in jubilant song you who were not in labor.
Friday (Isaiah 56) Observe what is right; do what is just; for my salvation is about to come; my justice is about to be revealed.
Saturday (Genesis 49) Jacob said: You Judah, shall your brothers praise. The scepter will never depart from you, or the mace from between your legs.
Gospel:
Monday: (Luke 1) The angel Gabriel was sent to a virgin betrothed to Joseph to announce that the Holy Spirit would overpower her and she would conceive a son.
Tuesday: (Matthew 21) A man had two sons – one who said no, but did what his father asked; the other who said yes, but did not do what he asked. Which son was better?
Wednesday (Luke 7) The Baptist sent his disciples at ask: Are you the one who is to come? Look around: the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and the poor hear the good news.
Thursday (Luke 7) Jesus asked: Why did you go out to see the Baptist? He is the greatest of men born to women.
Friday (John 5) The Baptist was a burning and shining lamp, and for a while you were content to rejoice in his lift, but I have greater testimony than John’s.
Saturday (Matthew 1) The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus.
Saints of the Week
Saints are not celebrated during the octave leading up to Christmas.
December 17 - O Wisdom, coming forth from the mouth of our God Most High, guiding creation with power and love: come to teach us the path of knowledge.
December 18 - O Adonai, and leader of the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: come to rescue us with your mighty power.
December 19 - O root of Jesse's stem, sign of God's love for all the people, before you the kings will be silenced, to you the nations will make their prayers: come to save us without delay!
December 20 - O key of David, and scepter of the house of Israel, opening the gates of God's eternal kingdom: come and free the prisoners of darkness.
December 21 - O radiant Dawn, splendor of eternal light, sun of justice: come and shine on those who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death.
December 21: Peter Canisius, S.J., priest and religious (1521-1597), was sent to Germany, Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, and Switzerland during the time of the Protestant Reformation to reinvigorate the Catholic faith. He directed many through the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius. He is a doctor of the church for his work in bringing many people back to the faith.
December 22 - O King of all nations, and their desire, and keystone of the church: come and save us, whom you formed from the dust.
December 23 - O Emmanuel, our king and giver of the Law, the hope of the nations and their Savior: come to save us, Lord our God.
This Week in Jesuit History
- December 17, 1588. At Paris, Fr. Henry Walpole was ordained.
- December 18, 1594. At Florence, the apparition of St Ignatius to St Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi.
- December 19, 1593. At Rome, Fr. Robert Bellarmine was appointed rector of the Roman College.
- December 20, 1815. A ukase of Alexander I was published banishing the Society of Jesus from St Petersburg and Moscow on the pretext that they were troubling the Russian Church.
- December 21, 1577. In Rome, Fr. Juan de Polanco, secretary to the Society and very dear to Ignatius, died.
- December 22, 1649. At Cork, Fr. David Glawey, a missionary in the Inner and Lower Hebrides, Islay, Oronsay, Colonsay, and Arran, died.
- December 23, 1549. Francis Xavier was appointed provincial of the newly erected Indian Province.
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