Whether a student is waiting patiently for exams results to come out or parents expecting the arrival of their newborn, anticipation and expectancy often causes some anxiety. However, when that anticipation or expectation comes with some degree of surety, the anxiety is lessened.
This Sunday’s Gospel continues last week’s focus on John the Baptist and his role in preparing the way for Christ. The gospel today recounts the instructions given by John the Baptist about expecting the coming of the One who is more powerful than him and what to do in preparation for the One who is coming. John’s preaching had created a feeling of expectancy and its growing among the people.
John the Baptist knew who is it that was to come but the people who came to see and hear him did not. It was not once, not twice, but three times that John was being asked, ‘what should we do?’ Despite the austere way of life John loved, his primary message to those who sought him was “repent” – a total conversion of heart, a way of living that is different and exemplifies our following of Jesus. When John says “Prepare the way for the Lord” (Luke 3:4), he is encouraging the people of his time to live more and more according to the way that Jesus was about to present through His public ministry.
On all three occasions when John is asked ‘what must we do’ by the people who had gathered around him, he presents a practical ethical instruction that is communal in character. Firstly, he tells them to share their “surplus” with the less privileged; secondly, John proposes a life of honesty in all dealings and thirdly, the integrity of lifestyle. A message that was preached two thousand years ago is still very relevant in our times.
On this 3rd Sunday of Advent, on Gaudete Sunday, we are reminded that this is a time of joy, not only because we are anticipating the celebration of the birth of Christ but because God is already in our midst (Emmanuel – God with us). More than anything, the presence of the Lord in our midst calls us to rejoice and “shout for joy”. However, the joy that we are being reminded is not one of merriment but one of expectancy and anticipation of the second coming of the Lord. Until then, that joy must inspire in us a life concern, honesty, and integrity – as preached by John in the gospel today.
Jesus comes into our world not to judge or condemn, but to save us all. The joy that we must discover is in choosing the way of Christ above all things. In responding to the question ‘what must I do’, John makes clear that there can be no mediocrity in following Jesus. Those who choose Jesus, choose life because He is our Life; those who choose Jesus, choose truth because He is the eternal Truth; those who choose Jesus, choose joy because He is the source of joy.
In preparing the way for Jesus, John the Baptist was sure that the only way the world can change is if the people change their minds and their ways and prepare for Jesus’ entry into the world. Advent then calls us also to change our minds and our ways. We are being called through the gospel today that concern for the other and not apathy must be the fruit of our faith; honesty and not being caught in a web of lies must come forth from our lips, and integrity and not duplicity must be our way of life.
Let us remember when we pray for the less fortunate or demand honesty and integrity of those who govern us, that these attributes must first begin with us. Society will become more honest when individuals become more honest because every society is simply the sum of its individual parts; poverty will begin to disappear when we are less self-centred and acquisitive.
On this Sunday then, let us in prayer ask God the same question that the people asked John the Baptist: “What must we do?” When we transform ourselves to conform to the ways of Jesus, joy fills us and “the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10).
3rd Sunday of Advent (12 Dec 2021)
