Third Sunday of Advent – Year C
Luke 3: 10-18
Zephaniah 3:14-18; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:10-18
When all the people asked John, ‘What must we do?’ he answered, ‘If anyone has two tunics he must share with the man who has none, and the one with something to eat must do the same.’ There were tax collectors too who came for baptism, and these said to him, ‘Master, what must we do?’ He said to them, ‘Exact no more than your rate.’ Some soldiers asked him in their turn, ‘What about us? What must we do?’ He said to them, ‘No intimidation! No extortion! Be content with your pay!’
A feeling of expectancy had grown among the people, who were beginning to think that John might be the Christ, so John declared before them all, ‘I baptise you with water, but someone is coming, someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandals; he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fan is in his hand to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his barn; but the chaff he will burn in a fire that will never go out.’ As well as this, there were many other things he said to exhort the people and to announce the Good News to them.
To share tears in order to be able to share a smile
Pope Francis
In today’s Gospel, there is a question posed three times: “What shall we do?” (Lk 3:10, 12, 14). It is raised to John the Baptist by three categories of people: First, the crowd in general; second, the publicans or tax collectors; and, third, some soldiers. Each of these groups questions the prophet on what must be done to implement the conversion that he is preaching. John’s reply to the question of the crowd is sharing essential goods. He told the first group, the crowd, to share basic necessities, and therefore says: “He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise” (v. 11). Then, he tells the second group, the tax collectors, to collect no more than the amount owed. What does this mean? No taking ‘bribes’, John the Baptist is clear. And he tells the third group, the soldiers, not to extort anything from anyone and to be content with their wages (cf. v. 14). There are three answers to the three questions of these groups. Three answers for an identical path of repentance, which is manifested in concrete commitments to justice and solidarity. It is the path that Jesus points to in all his preaching: the path of diligent love for neighbour.
From John the Baptist’s admonitions, we understand the general tendencies of those who at that time held power, in various forms. Things have not changed very much. However, no category of people is excluded from following the path of repentance to obtain salvation, not even the tax collectors, considered sinners by definition: not even they are excluded from salvation. God does not preclude anyone from the opportunity to be saved. He is — so to speak — anxious to show mercy, to show it towards everyone, and to welcome each one into the tender embrace of reconciliation and forgiveness.
We feel that this question — “What shall we do?” — is ours also. Today’s liturgy tells us, in the words of John, that it is necessary to repent, to change direction and take the path of justice, solidarity, sobriety: these are the essential values of a fully human and genuinely Christian life. Repent! It sums up the message of the Baptist. And the Liturgy of this Third Sunday of Advent helps us to rediscover a special dimension of repentance: joy. Whoever repents and approaches the Lord, feels joy. The prophet Zephaniah says to us today: “Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion!”, addressing Jerusalem (Zeph 3:14); and the apostle Paul exhorts the Christians of Philippi: “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Phil 4:4). Today, it takes courage to speak of joy, which, above all, requires faith! The world is beset by many problems, the future is burdened by uncertainties and fears. Yet, Christians are a joyful people, and their joy is not something superficial and ephemeral, but deep and stable, because it is a gift from the Lord that fills life. Our joy comes from the certainty that “the Lord is at hand” (Phil 4:5): he is close with his tenderness, his mercy, his forgiveness and his love.
May the Virgin Mary help us to strengthen our faith, so that we are able to welcome the God of joy, the God of mercy, who always wants to live in the midst of his children. May our Mother teach us to share tears with those who weep, in order to be able to also share a smile.
Angelus 13.12.2015
REJOICE ALWAYS
Raniero Cantalamessa
The third Sunday of Advent is pervaded by the theme of joy. This Sunday is traditionally called “Laetare” Sunday, that is, the Sunday of “rejoicing,” from the words of St. Paul in the second reading: “Rejoice in the Lord always; I say again, rejoice.”
In the first reading we hear the words of the prophet Zephaniah: “Rejoice, O daughter Zion! Sing joyfully, O Israel! Be glad and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem!” In the responsorial psalm this extraordinary vocabulary of joy is enriched with still other terms: “My strength and my courage is the Lord, and he has been my salvation. With joy you will draw water at the fountain of salvation. … Shout with exultation, O city of Zion.”
Let us remain for a while with this word. (The Gospel passage continues the message of John the Baptist that we commented on last Sunday.) In the poem “Il sabato del villaggio” (“The village sabbath”) Giacomo Leopardi has expressed the idea that in the present life the only authentic and possible joy is the joy of expectation, the joy of the sabbath. It is a “day full of hope and joy,” full of joy precisely because it is full of hope. The expectation of the feast is better than the feast itself.
The possession of the good that was longed for brings nothing but disillusionment and boredom, because every finite good reveals itself to be inferior to what was desired and is tiresome; only expectation is the bearer of living joy. But this is precisely what Christian joy is in this world: the joy of the sabbath, the prelude to the Sunday without end, which is eternal life. St. Paul says that Christians must be “joyful in hope” (Romans 12:12), which does not mean that we must “hope to be happy” (after death), but that we must be “joyful in hope,” already happy now by the simple fact of hoping.
The Apostle does not limit himself only to the command to rejoice; he also indicates how a community that wants to bear witness to joy and make it credible to others must conduct itself. He says: “Your affability should be known by all men.”
The Greek word that we translate as “affability” signifies a whole complex of attitudes that runs from clemency to the capacity to know how to believe and to show oneself to be lovable, tolerant, and hospitable. We could translate it with the word “kindness.” It is necessary that we first of all rediscover the human value of this virtue. Kindness is a virtue which is at risk, or, more exactly, it is a virtue that is extinct in the society in which we live.
Gratuitous violence in films and on television, language that is intentionally vulgar, the competition to go beyond the limits in regard to brutality and explicit sex is making us used to every expression of ugliness and vulgarity.
Kindness is a balm in human relationships. Family life would be so much better if there were more kindness in our gestures, in our words, and above all, in the sentiments of our hearts. Nothing extinguishes the joy of being together more than a certain vileness in our behavior. “A kind answer,” says Scripture, “calms wrath, but a barbed one brings ire” (Proverbs 15:14). “A kind mouth multiplies friends, and gracious lips prompt friendly greetings” (Sirach 6:5). A kind person generates fond feelings and admiration wherever he goes.
Alongside this human value we must also rediscover the Gospel value of kindness. In the Bible the terms “meek” and “mild” do not have the passive sense of “subjected,” “repressed,” but the active sense of a person who acts with respect, courtesy, clemency toward others.
Kindness is indispensable above all for those who want to help others find Christ. The Apostle Peter recommends to the first Christians to be “ready to give a reason for their hope,” but adds immediately: “But this must be done with sweetness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15 ff), which is to say, with kindness.
JOY: A GIFT TO BE WELCOMED
Fernando Armellini
What does a person ask of life, if not happiness? The Hebrew Bible employs something like twenty-seven synonyms to express feelings of joy. Nothing is more contrary to the Bible, then, than the religion of sorrow, of mourning, of the frowning faces that we sometimes see in our Sunday assemblies. But how can we achieve joy? Is wealth, good health, success enough? Who can be considered genuinely blessed?
To this question, the Israelites of ancient times answered: happy is the one who enjoys the fruits of his field (Is 9:2), who rejoices in wine (Jas 9:13), who has a united family (Deut 12:7) and numerous offspring (1 Sam 2:1,5); happy are the people who achieve a military victory (1 Sam 18:6), who contemplate their city rebuilt (Ne 12:43), who celebrate with hymns, music and dance the abundant harvests that God has granted them (Deut 16:11,14). All this—we know—is not enough.
With our wealth and technologies, trickery, and efforts, we can achieve happiness, good humor, euphoria, hilarity, pleasure, fun, but no joy. This is the fruit of the Spirit, and we can only welcome it as a gift. We can, however, put obstacles in our way: today’s readings will help us identify them so we can remove them.
Gospel: Luke 3:10-18
“You race of vipers, who has taught you to flee from the coming wrath? The ax is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire” (Lk 3:7,9). It is with these stern words that John welcomes those who come to him to be baptized. He may be correct, but his threats certainly do not sound like ‘good news,’ and neither are they in harmony with the theme of joy that characterizes this Sunday’s readings.
“Do works worthy of conversion!” —he repeats to the crowds (Lk 3:8). All right, but what are these works? The simple people to whom he addresses himself expect clear proposals, not abstract and general speeches.
In the first part of today’s Gospel (vv. 10-14), three groups of people appear—ordinary people, tax collectors, soldiers—who go to the Baptist for concrete indications. This is a ternary pattern of questions and answers that present exemplary situations (cf. Lk 9:57-62). It is a literary device that invites us to apply the ascetic principle indicated by the Baptist to other similar cases.
The question, “What shall we do?” is repeated several times in Luke’s work (Acts 2:37; 16:30; 22:10). It indicates the complete willingness to accept God’s will on the part of those who realize they have gone astray, are determined to change their lives, and ask for guidance on the path to take.
Let’s imagine that some of us, wishing to prepare well for Christmas, ask this same question of those we consider ‘experts’ in the religious field (the catechist, the pastoral worker, the nun, the priest). What would they answer?
Some would suggest helping a brother or sister in difficulty or visiting a sick person, but we would also get other answers: ‘Recite the rosary every day’; ‘Say three Salve Regina before you go to sleep’; ‘Go to confession’… This is good advice, mind you, but the Baptist does not choose this path. He does not suggest anything specifically ‘religious.’ he does not recommend devotional practices or penitential ceremonies (imposition of ashes, fasting, prayers, and spiritual retreats in the desert). He demands something very concrete: a radical revision of one’s life starting from the ethical principle of love for one’s brothers and sisters.
To the people, he says: “Whoever has two tunics should give one to those who have none, and whoever has food should do the same” (vv. 10-11). Last Sunday, the Baptist invited us to review our relationship with God if we want to prepare for the coming of the Messiah. He called for a change in thinking and acting to have forgiveness of sins (Lk 1:3). Today he focuses on the new relationship that must be established with one’s neighbor. Love, solidarity, sharing, removal of inequalities, and abuses of power are the keywords of his discourse.
One certainly cannot accuse the Baptist of a lack of clarity. Prayers and devotions are fine if they do not turn into alibis if they are not used as expedients to escape the call to share goods with those most in need. We gladly gather to pray, to sing. Still, when we are asked to make available to our brothers and sisters the goods we possess… all our religious enthusiasm suddenly vanishes. Yet, the Baptist is still ‘sympathetic’ to human weakness. He says, ‘If you have two tunics, give one to the one who has none.’ From his disciples, Jesus will demand even more: “Whoever takes away your cloak, give him your tunic as well!” (Lk 6:29).
Later, the tax collectors present themselves to John. They are those who exercise the profession most hated by the people: they collect taxes and are collaborators with the oppressive system of the Romans. They enrich themselves by extorting money from the weakest and most defenseless. The Baptist does not ask them to change their profession but not take advantage of their trade to exploit the poorest.
Perhaps we think we have nothing to do with this profession. Instead—we must admit it—we behave like ‘tax collectors’ when, for example, having reached a position of prestige, we demand very high fees for our services, perhaps claiming as justification: ‘These are the established rates.’
The tax collector is the symbol of those who handle money in a ‘casual’ way;someone who buys and sells without scruples, thinking only of his advantage; someone who, with clever deception, can cheat simple people, who evade taxes, who hacks the State, who takes advantage of the naivety of the poor to exploit him and get rich. Those who behave like ‘tax collectors’ certainly cannot prepare for Christmas with just a few prayers.
The last to ask the Baptist for advice are the soldiers. We would expect John to advise them to take off their uniforms, throw down their weapons immediately, and refuse to fight. But even here, he shows himself to be ‘tolerant.’ Jesus will be more radical and will forbid any recourse to violence. He will say to the disciple: “Do not oppose evil with evil, but if someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other cheek as well” (Mt 5:39).
The soldiers of that time were poorly paid, so what did they do? With weapons in their hands, they took advantage of their strength to beat people up, harass women, extort money, and impose harsh and humiliating services on the weakest, harass poor farmers, and force them to carry loads. The Baptist asks them not to mistreat anyone and to be content with their wages. Soldiers are the symbol of those who can abuse their strength, those who take advantage of the position they occupy, of the profession they have. Those who dominate and overpower the weakest behave like ‘soldiers’ (of that time, of course) and are invited to review their behavior if they want to prepare themselves for the coming of the Lord.
The Baptist resumes his apparently harsh, rigorous, almost intolerant language in the second part of the Gospel (vv. 15-18). He speaks of separating the good wheat from the chaff and threatens its destruction in the unquenchable fire. He seems to leave sinners no room to rejoice: a terrible judgment of God awaits them, he assures them, and is imminent.
The evangelist ends the harsh speech of John with a surprising sentence: “With these and many other words of consolation he proclaimed the good news to the people” (v. 18).
You have understood well: words of consolation (this is the correct translation of the verb parakaleo). For Luke the Baptist’s message is good news; it is happy news, it is the promise of a happy event. John’s way of expressing himself perhaps does not conform to our current sensitivity; it is neither sweet nor tender, yet he wants to communicate joy and hope. If we consider the text carefully, we verify that he does not promise any punishment from God; he only speaks of the coming of the Holy Spirit and of the fire that will annihilate the chaff.
Water cleanses, but it can also kill; it can submerge and drown. When he immersed those who came to be baptized by him in the Jordan River, John performed an act that signified cleansing from the stains of sin and death to the past life. Nothing more. His was an imperfect, incomplete baptism—and of this, the forerunner was perfectly aware. He knew that the water he employed was an external bath. To become lifeblood, water must be absorbed by plants, drunk, and assimilated by animals and humans.
The baptism of Jesus is not water that cleanses the outside; it is water that penetrates inside, revives, and transforms. It is water that becomes in those who drink it “a spring that gushes forth to eternal life” (Jn 4:14). It is his Spirit; it is the power of God that transforms the old man into a new creature. It is the fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy: “I shall pour pure water over you and you shall be made clean—cleansed from the defilement of all your idols. I shall give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I shall remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I shall put my spirit within you and move you to follow my decrees and keep my laws” (Ezk 36:25-27).
At this point, the image of fire also becomes clear. Jesus himself would later speak of it: “I have come to bring fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled” (Lk 12:49). It is not the fire prepared to punish unrepentant sinners. The only fire that God knows is the one brought to earth by Jesus; it is the Spirit that renews the face of the earth (Ps 104:1). He will come down from heaven at Pentecost (Acts 2:3) and will unite people in one language, that of love. This will be the fire that will purify the world from all evil, that will eradicate every ‘chaff.’
Therefore, it is not sinners who should fear the coming of Christ, but sin, whose destruction is announced. Sinners should only rejoice because for them has come the liberation from the evil that keeps them enslaved.
There is much rejoicing that is not Christian. The Baptist indicates the way to let one’s heart be filled with true joy: to prepare for the coming of the Lord in one’s own life by sharing one’s goods with the poor and by rejecting all forms of abuse, oppression, and prevarication against one’s brother or sister.
For a Christmas of sharing and Missionary spirit
Romeo Ballan, mccj
At first sight, we are confronted by two contrasting messages: the insistent call to joy (1stand 2nd Readings) and the demanding invitation to conversion (Gospel). The contrast is only apparent, as we can gather from today’s texts. Better still, joy and conversion go hand in hand, because the Lord is the root of both: conversion to the Lord causes joy and fraternity.
John the Baptist’s words (Gospel) are harsh; they sound old-fashioned, inacceptable today: he dares to issue severe warnings to the soldiers, to the tax collectors, to all… He calls all classes of people to change their lifestyle. John showed himself in the desert, on the banks of the river Jordan “preaching a baptism of conversion for the forgiveness of sins” (Lk. 3:3). Luke reports the words of the Precursor without softening them. John shakes his listeners, calling them a “Brood of vipers”: he urges them to produce “fruit in keeping with conversion” and to produce good fruit so as not to be thrown into the fire. (Lk. 3:7-9). But which conversion, and with what kind of fruit?
Last Sunday, the call to conversion pointed first of all to a return to God (this might be called the vertical dimension of conversion), preparing the heart to receive His salvation. Today, John gives concrete and precise pointers to a conversion which touches directly relationships with others (the horizontal dimension). Luke refers to three groups of people who, moved by the prophetic rage of the Precursor, ask him “What must we do?” (vv. 10.12.14). It is a question that Luke likes, and he repeats it in other missionary conversion stories: the crowds at Pentecost, the gaoler at Philippi, Paul himself on the road to Damascus (see Acts: 2:37; 16:30; 22:10). The question shows a readiness to change radically: it is the fundamental attitude in every conversion and, at the same time, an appeal to another person who knows how to answer in God’s name. Generally, we call such a person a missionary, whether it is a priest, a lay person, a sister, a teacher, a catechist…
The three groups of people who go to the Baptist are: the crowds (groups of people not always identified), the publicans (tax collectors: the hated group of collaborators with the Roman Empire), and the soldiers (people accustomed to being heavy-handed). They are groups that are often considered to be beyond redemption… The Baptist is not afraid of them, he welcomes them, gives them answers that are fitting and concrete and all of them touching on relationships with others, with one’s neighbour: the sharing of clothing and food (v. 11), justice in dealings with others (v. 13) respect and mercy towards all (v. 14). They are all relationships that fall under the fifth and seventh commandment.
John goes beyond himself and his preaching, pointing towards the uplifting intervention of the Holy Spirit (v.16), who will be poured out like a baptism of fire on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2). Then, indeed, the Spirit will make all things new, and will renew above all the hearts of men and women, and bring together diverse peoples in the single language of love. Then indeed it will be easier to understand that conversion to Christ requires justice and compassion towards everyone, and it entails sharing with those in need. In this way John, who is the model for missionaries of all times, “proclaimed the good news to the people” (v. 18). Today the missionary, in his fidelity to Christ, is called to announce hope and solidarity.
Personal adherence to Christ and the proclamation of the Good News always bring joy, as is shown in the repeated calls of Zephaniah and of Paul (1st & 2nd Readings) and other liturgical texts. First of all because God rejoices over us, renews us with His love, celebrates with us and rejoices over us with cries of joy. Hence the prophet calls out: “Have no fear; do not let your hands fall limp”, because the Lord is a powerful saviour (vv. 16-18). Paul refers insistently on the reason for the joy of the believer: the Lord is near, he is present (vv. 4-5). There is no reason for anxiety, as we can always turn to Him in prayer, which strengthens our joy (vv .5-7).
Christmas joy is true joy only if it is shared with concrete gestures in favour of those who suffer. Here is a recent concrete example. In a rural town, a Moslem family suffered the tragic loss of a woman and her baby. The parish priest asked his people to have a collection to help the father and the other children. It was an immediate, concrete and effective initiative: for a Christmas of sharing, a truly missionary one. A truly Christian Christmas! In the hearts of the faithful who share in such initiatives Jesus is truly born again. It is in this way that faith is strengthened and spread. To celebrate Christmas means to discover that the verb required for creating a new humanity is “to give”: there is no greater love than to give one’s life…; there is more joy in giving than in receiving… These are the words of the Child who is being born at Bethlehem, the gift of the Father, who has so much loved the world as to give his Son… So that the world may have life in abundance!
