This Sunday we celebrate the third Sunday of Advent, the famous Sunday of joy. Before we go into the message of the biblical texts, we need to remember the logic behind liturgical texts, especially during Advent: the first reading is a prophecy: God speaks through his servants, the prophets, about a promise. The psalm (especially the antiphon) is a prayer for the fulfilment of this promise, and in the Gospel we see Jesus fulfilling this promise.
The joy to which we are called this Sunday is, in fact, the fruit of the salvation that God brings. In a time of uncertainty and turmoil, the fate of God’s people was far from guaranteed. On the one hand, Assyria threatened all the small kingdoms, while on the other, Egypt made its neighbours tremble, with God’s people caught in the middle. To make matters worse, Judah’s immediate neighbours, the Northern Kingdom and Syria, allied to force Judah to join them against Assyria. The situation was therefore critical.
In the midst of all this, the prophet Isaiah calls his people to rejoice, for the Lord is coming to save them. This salvation is expressed in a rebirth and restoration. The prophet speaks symbolically of the desert blooming again. This means that God’s glory and splendour will be visible even in nature, which was once completely dead; it is revived and sees God’s glory again.
Another sign of God’s presence and his salvation among the people is healings: the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and the dumb speak. In addition, those who were captives are set free. All these actions are sources of great joy, a joy that is eternal and will never end.
The responsorial psalm is a prayer for this prophecy to be fulfilled. Come, Lord, and save us, says the antiphon. Save us from famine, oppression and injustice, from blindness; in short, may the Lord reign in our lives.
In the Gospel taken from Matthew, Jesus fulfils this prophecy. The people of God, faithful to the teachings of the prophets, knew that, among many other signs of the Messiah, he would take upon himself all our infirmities. John, in his prison cell, is going through a crisis of faith and asks himself, “Is Jesus really the Messiah?” Indeed, he is slow to bring about God’s vengeance, a vengeance that John badly needed in his prison.
But Jesus responds by pointing to the Scriptures: restoration: The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the Good News preached to them. In other words, God’s promises of salvation are fulfilled in Jesus. This is the source of our deep joy. God saves us in Jesus.
Jesus recalls John’s message to the people as the messengers leave: “John is the one who cried out in the desert, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before you, to prepare the way before you’”. God’s salvation requires that we prepare the way of the Lord. God saves us, but we must accept this salvation if we are to have deep joy.
The season of Advent is not only a reminder of the birth of Jesus long ago; it is, above all, the expectation of Jesus’ coming in glory. James, in the second reading, invites us to persevere in patience as we wait for the Lord. Let us hold fast to the salvation we have already received from the Lord as we await the final salvation at the return of the Lord Jesus.
Salvation is an ongoing process. Through our baptism, we are saved from sin and incorporated into the Body of Christ, configured to Christ. Just as an application needs an operating system to function, we Christians must continue to draw on Jesus for the strength of our salvation. We need to nourish ourselves daily with his word and the Eucharist to maintain our salvation. Our salvation is past, present and future. Our joy as Christians comes from our continuous relationship with the source of our salvation: Jesus.
I will conclude with a story that took place in my home village, in a parish run by the Xaverian Fathers. There was a baptismal Mass, where a family were to be baptised: the father, the mother and their baby son. The mother was baptised first, then the baby, and finally the father. When the priest pronounced the words and performed the baptismal actions, the father burst with joy, singing a joyful song in his mother tongue. He had forgotten that the Mass was not yet over. His joy was in becoming a child of God. He took his baby in his arms and went up to the priest, asking him: “Is this baby really a child of God?” When the priest answered in the affirmative, the father sang another verse of joy, took his wife by the hand, and they began to dance together. The whole church joined in; it was the best catechesis on the joy of salvation that day.
Let us always rejoice with joy, for the Lord is our salvation.
By: Ghislain Mbilizi, M.Afr.