Third Sunday of Advent

Third  Sunday of Advent

Jesus quotes the Isaiah passage in the beginning of his ministry.  Isaiah provided the scope of Jesus’ work:

“…the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the LORD and a day of vindication by our God.”

Jesus did the big things - like changing water into wine, healing a young child from  a distance, feeding the 5,000, walking on water, and raising Lazarus - but what I find the most moving is the part about Jesus’ emotional connection with the people around him. While Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the line that strikes me is, “Jesus wept.”  It was a total human reaction. Some interpret his weeping as that of shared grief, other’s interpret it as Jesus weeping over the tragedy of the state of unbelief.  Perhaps it’s both.

Jesus’ presence in sharing the sorrow over the loss of his friend Lazarus was enough for Martha and Mary, but the raising of Lazarus from the dead was for unbelievers. They needed a sign. For those of us who believe, it’s enough that Jesus walks with and among us. It’s enough that he shares in our struggles, it’s enough that he would sit and drink with sinners rather than judging them. It’s enough that he would feel the desperation of a group of friends who would lower their paralyzed man down from the roof into a room of crowded people.  But for those who don’t believe, they need Jesus to change the circumstance of struggle and sorrow.

I am convinced that Jesus isn’t about making things better for me or changing the world around me to fit my need for comfort or control.  With the deaths of my brother, then father and now my mother - I have come to know that Jesus isn’t going to change the circumstances around me. Jesus interest is about how I will change given the circumstances that I myself cannot control. 

Jesus doesn’t point to the past, but toward the future. The gospel from today, for instance, points to the future. John says, “but there is one among you whom you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.”  John the Baptist points to the one who is to come. People were trying to keep John tied to the past, by asking him who he was.  They’re trying to control John and control the growing excitement in people’s interest in a coming Messiah because were fearful and they couldn’t control what John the Baptist was saying or how people were reacting to his preaching.

We must do better than those who opposed John. Moving toward the future means that we cannot be caught up in fear otherwise we’d be stuck.  If we’re fearful, we cannot retreat and go backwards.  If we’re uncomfortable, we cannot hide until things around us get better.  We won’t move forward if we’re grasping to hold onto the past or trying to control the outcome.  There’s a way that we can overcome our fear: joy

In 1 Thessalonians Paul bids us to rejoice and pray without ceasing.  This means that our every waking moment isn’t defined by fear, regret, shame, or any thoughts that would leave us immobile, paralyzed or unmotivated. Living in joy allows us to push the boundaries and be bold.  Paul says, “Test everything; retain what is good.”  Living in joy means that we’re ready to take that chance, step up and step out.

For me, joy doesn’t mean an exuberant emotional release, but rather deepening the knowledge of God’s love.  Monasteries are one of the most joyful places but you won’t see them singing “alabanzas” or dancing. You will; however, meet monks who are joyful in their hearts. Their disposition toward the world is love, not condemnation.  It’s a resolute confidence in God’s presence, not a fear that they are under attack by an unseen enemy.  Joy is something that is worn on the inside, not on the sleeve.  When Isaiah says, “like a bridegroom adorned with a diadem (and a) bride bedecked with her jewels.”  This line refers to the interior spiritual disposition of the believer. Joy gives a certain confidence so that we can face the unknown with a sense that things will be okay and that whatever happens won’t destroy us forever. 

Am I there at that point of joyful confidence? To be honest, no.  But that’s okay. I’m a work in progress.  I believe that God will continue to work on me and that though his loving hand will not change the circumstances, God will shape who I am in the midst of what’s happening around me. Letting go of all the stuff around me is freedom. I look to the day when I can be free to live in the joy of the present moment without being anxious about a future that is yet to be realized.

Look at these roses: they’re given by the broken hearted, depressed, weary, those held in captivity by either an addiction or a bad and abusive relationship, given by those who had been profiled by police, and those who received deportation orders.  These roses tell me that you are already free even though you have suffered a lot in your life.

On this weekend we are reminded that Juan Diego’s journey wasn’t easy. His journey began when he encountered the Divine in the Apparition of Guadalupe. Mary’s tenderness and affection for Juan Diego changed him. She could relate to his oppression, for she too spoke Nahuatl and had dark skin. She wore the clothes of the indigenous people, not the flowing robes of Spanish nobility. Guadalupe de Tepeyac, Maria Tonatzín, like Jesus, simply wept at the plight of her people.

La Morenita’s loving tenderness awaked Juan Diego’s inner-being, his cultura - his identidad. He was at last free. Juan Diego’s freedom didn’t come because the Spanish retreated from the land or that the system of exploitation and misery was vanquished, but rather, Juan Diego was left with a more important gift: joy. That no matter what the Spanish tried to do in terms of military might - they couldn’t take his soul, his alma. Maria Tonatzín gave Juan Diego the ganas to be free and in his freedom he dared to be resistant. He stood up to ridicule from his peers, prejudice and hostility from the Spanish clergy, and, most importantly, he stood up to his own inward fears.  Juan Diego wasn’t held back being the messenger of God’s love manifested at Tepeyac in the appearance of the Virgen de Guadalupe. And that is the very definition of what it means to be free.

So let us move forward together - sons and daughters of Our Lady as free people with a joy that is deep within us and that no one and no thing can ever take from us.