14/12/2008 - 3rd. Sunday Season of
Advent - Year B
Ist. Reading Is 61,1-2.10-11 Resp. Lk 1,46-50.53-54 2nd. Reading 1Thes 5,16-24
Gospel Jn 1,6-8.19-28
"We await the resurrection of the dead" Our life is a continuous waiting.
We know that we are moving towards our dawn, and this cannot be the destruction.
It seems that death is the last issue in our life, but we have many signs that
it is not so. Dreams and visions, that some people say to have about someone
in the family or a dead friend, signs of an on going life after death, are not
so much convincing as the Word of God. It is upon this that we get hold to await
with a sure hope the resurrection of the dead. What does this resurrection implies
we do not know: it remains mysterious. St. Paul says that "what is sown
in the earth is subject to decay, what rises is incorruptible; what is sown
ignoble, what rises is glorious. Weakness is sown, strength rises up. If there
is a natural body, be sure there is also a spiritual body" (1Cor. 15,42s.).
It is mysterious, that is, a plan of God, that he makes; He reveals it to us
as much as we can take of it, but we can believe it without doubt. We live in
the waiting of the fulfillment of the mystery that for us is our salvation.
The Christians, thanks to this awaiting, direct their choices in life towards
the future land, and keep alive a hope that allows them to go above the sufferings
and be able to carry the daily cross. Many parables of Jesus speak of the after
death and exhort us to live this awaiting. All the teachings of the apostles
in their letters hang on to this faith and from it receive power. St. Paul writes:
"All of us are to be changed…the dead will be raised incorruptible, and
we shall be changed" (1Cor.15,51s.); "our citizenship is in heaven;
it is from there that we eagerly await the coming of our Savior the Lord Jesus
Christ. He will give a new form to this lowly body of ours and remake it according
to the pattern of his glorified body" (Phil. 3,20s.). St. Peter also affirms:
"Beloved, you are strangers and in exile; hence I urge you not to indulge
your carnal desires. By their nature they wage war on the soul" (1Pt. 2,11).
If we don't have the certitude of the resurrection, the mystery that ties us
with the risen Christ, we won't be able to witness to the Lord; on the contrary,
we would have despised the great number of martyrs of all centuries in the history
of the Church.
We keep on looking at John the Baptist and listen to him. Today he is presented
to us as a witness. His life and his word witness the one who is the Light,
the Prophet, the Christ, and the Bridegroom! From the answers he gives to those
sent to him from the Jews in Jerusalem, we can see that he lives for Jesus,
because he knows that he was sent so that Jesus is known and welcomed. The importance
of John comes from the one whom he proclaims. John does not look for his own
glory, to be affirmed. He is for us a good example: as disciples of Jesus we
are to do all for the glory of our Lord, and not to be admired, or held great
or important by others. This is the humility of the great saints, of Mary and
all the apostles: they always believed that their lives were for the service
of God, for this is a service to all humanity that God wants to love and save.
There is no greater vocation that this, as Mary herself said: "He looked
at the lowliness of his servant. As from now all generations shall call me blessed.
The Almighty has done great things for me". John, therefore, could say
that he is not the Messiah, neither the prophet, no one from those whom his
interlocutors were afraid he would claim to be. The joy of John is to be a servant,
to be able to speak about Jesus, show him present, prepare his arrival in the
hearts of men, especially in those who retain to be sinner. It is upon him,
in fact, as the prophet Isaiah says in the First Reading, that the Spirit of
the Lord rests, that Spirit that consecrates and make sure that the will of
God, to free and heal, is fulfilled.
Already Isaiah announced the joy, that joy that John shows to the converted
sinners that run to him, that joy that the apostle Paul wants to see among the
Christians. The exhortation that he addresses to the Thessalonians begins like
this: "Rejoice always"! We ask: how is it possible to rejoice in a
world of pain, suffering, violence and war? Here is the answer: "pray without
ceasing, and in everything give thanks". The prayer of thanksgiving to
God is a source of joy, of that joy not of things that pass, but of the love
of God, of the obedience of Jesus, of the light and consolation of the Spirit.
The Preface at Mass starts almost always in this way: "It is truly a good
thing..our duty and source of salvation to give you always…and everywhere thanks
through Jesus Christ our Lord". It is true, it is a source of salvation,
and therefore of joy, giving thanks! God himself rejoices when we thank him,
and his joy is reflected in our hearts! Let us prepare ourselves to welcome
and celebrate our Savior with joy, thanking continuously the Father for Jesus
so that we can be his servants and witnesses!