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One Who is Coming
The mysterious figure of John the Baptist, introduced in last week’s readings, comes into sharper focus today. Who he is, we see in this Sunday’s Gospel, is best understood by who he isn’t.
He is not Elijah returned from the heavens (see 2 Kings 2:11), although like him he dresses in the prophet’s attire (see Mark 1:6; 2 Kings 1:8) and preaches repentance and judgment (see 1 Kings 18:21; 2 Chronicles 21:12-15). Not Elijah in the flesh, John is nonetheless sent in the spirit and power of Elijah to fulfill his mission (see Luke 1:17; Malachi 3:23-24). Neither is John the prophet Moses foretold, although he is a kinsman and speaks God’s word (see Deuteronomy 18:15-19; John 6:14). Nor is John the Messiah, though he has been anointed by the Spirit since the womb (see Luke 1:15,44). John prepares the way for the Lord (see Isaiah 40:3). His baptism is symbolic, not sacramental. It is a sign given to stir our hearts to repentance.
John shows us the One upon whom the Spirit remains (see John 1:32), the One who fulfills the promise we hear in Sunday’s First Reading (see Luke 4:16-21). Jesus’ bath of rebirth and the Spirit opens a fountain that purifies Israel and gives to all a new heart and a new Spirit (see Zechariah 13:1-3; Ezekiel 36:24-27; Mark 1:8; Titus 3:5).
John comes to us in the Advent readings to show us the light, that we might believe in the One who comes at Christmas. As we sing in Sunday’s Psalm, the Mighty One has come to lift each of us up, to fill our hunger with bread from heaven (see John 6:33, 49-51).
And as Paul exhorts in the Epistle, we should rejoice, give thanks, and pray without ceasing that God will make us perfectly holy in spirit, soul, and body—that we may be blameless when our Lord comes.
St. Augustine
Sermons on the Gospel of Saint John
In what way has Christ come? He appeared as man. But because he was a man such that God was concealed within him, a special kind of man was sent before him to make known that he was more than man, that he was the Messiah…
Who was he, this man who had to give testimony to the Light in this way? The man John was truly remarkable, of great merit and outstanding grace, high above all others. Admire him in the way we would admire a mountain: the mountain would remain in shadow so long as the light did not come to envelop it – “He was not the Light.” Don’t take the mountain for the light; don’t break yourself against it, far less find help in it.
So what should we admire, then? The mountain, but only as a mountain. Rise up as far as him who lights up this mountain, which was erected to become the first to receive the sun’s rays and to reflect them back to your eyes… We say of our eyes, too, that they are lights and yet, if we don’t light the lamp at night or if the sun does not rise by day, our eyes are open in vain. John himself was in the dark before he was enlightened; he only became light through this enlightenment. If he had not received the rays of this Light he would have remained as dark as other are…
And what about the Light itself? Where is it? “The true Light which enlightens everyone coming into the world”? (Jn 1,9). If he enlightens everyone then he also enlightened John, through whom he wished to be manifested…
He came for the sick of mind, for wounded hearts, for souls whose eyes are weak…, people unable to see aright. He covered John with his beams. By testifying that he himself had been enlightened, John made known He who enlightens, He who gives clarity, He who is the source of every gift.
St. Gregory the Great
Homilies on the Gospel, 4 (Migne,7)
“I baptize with water, but among you stands one whom you do not know.” John did not baptize with the Spirit, but with water, since he was unable to take away the sins of those being baptized. He washed their bodies with water, but not their hearts with pardon.
Why did one whose baptism did not forgive sins baptize, except that he was observing his vocation as forerunner? He whose birth foreshadowed a greater birth, by his baptizing foreshadowed the Lord who would truly baptize; he whose preaching made him the forerunner of Christ, by baptizing also became his forerunner, using a symbol of the future sacrament.
With these other mysteries he makes known the mystery of our Redeemer, declaring that he has stood among men and not been known. The Lord appeared in a human body: he came as God in flesh, visible in his body, invisible in his majesty.
He goes on to say about him: “He who comes after me was made before me” (Jn 1,15)…; he revealed the reason for this precedence when he said: “because he was before me.” He means, “Even though he was born after me, he surpasses me in that the time of his birth does not limit him. He who is born from his mother in time was begotten of his Father before time.”
John reveals the great humility and reverence he owes Christ by saying: “I am not worthy to undo the strap of his sandal.” It was the custom among the ancients that if someone was unwilling to take the wife he should be taking, he who should have come to her as bridegroom by right of relationship would undo his sandal.
Pope Benedict XVI
Angelus Address, December 14, 2008
How did Christ appear among men if not as the bridegroom of holy Church?… But since people considered John the Christ, a fact which he denied, he was right to declare his unworthiness to undo the strap of Christ’s sandal. It is as if he was saying…: “I am not unrightfully usurping for myself the name of bridegroom” (cf. Jn 3,29).
This Sunday, the Third Sunday in the Season of Advent, is called “Gaudete Sunday”: “rejoice”, because the Entrance Antiphon of Holy Mass takes up St Paul’s words in the Letter to the Philippians where it says: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say, Rejoice”. And immediately after he explains the reason, because “The Lord is at hand” (Phil 4: 4-5). This is the reason for joy.
But what does “the Lord is at hand” mean? In what sense must we understand this “closeness” of God? The Apostle Paul, writing to the Christians of Philippi, is evidently thinking of Christ’s return and invites them to rejoice because it is certain.
Yet, St Paul in his Letter to the Thessalonians, warns that no one can know the moment of the Lord’s coming (cf. 1 Thes 5: 1-2) and puts people on guard against any kind of alarmism, as if Christ’s return were imminent (cf. 2 Thes 2: 1-2).
Thus the Church, illumined by the Holy Spirit, already at that time understood increasingly better that God’s “closeness” is not a question of space and time but rather of love: love brings people together! This coming Christmas will remind us of this fundamental truth of our faith and in front of the manger we shall be able to savour Christian joy contemplating in the newborn Jesus the Face of God who made himself close to us out of love.
Pope Benedict XVI
Angelus Address, December 11, 2011
The liturgical texts for this Season of Advent renew the invitation to us to live in expectation of Jesus and not to stop looking forward to his coming so as to keep ourselves open and ready to encounter him. Heartfelt watchfulness, which Christians are always called to practise in their daily life, characterizes in particular this season in which we prepare joyfully for the mystery of Christmas (cf. Preface of Advent II).
The external environment proposes the usual commercial messages, although perhaps to a lesser degree because of the economic crisis. Christians are asked to live Advent without allowing themselves be distracted by the bright lights but knowing how to give things their proper value and how to fix their inner gaze on Christ. Indeed if we persevere in “watching in prayer, our hearts filled with wonder and praise” (ibid.), our eyes will be able to recognize in him the true light of the world that comes to dispel our gloom.
The liturgy of this Sunday, known as “Gaudete” Sunday, is a special invitation to us to joyfulness, to a vigilance that is not sad but happy. “Gaudete in Domino semper”, St Paul wrote: “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Phil 4:4). True joy is not a fruit of “divertirsi” [having a good time] understood in the etymological sense of the word di-vertere (di-version), that is, shirking the commitments of life and one’s responsibilities.
True joy is linked to something deeper. Of course, in the all too often frenetic pace of daily life it is important to find time for rest and relaxation, but true joy is linked to our relationship with God. Those who have encountered Christ in their own lives feel a serenity and joy in their hearts that no one and no situation can take from them. St Augustine understood this very well; in his quest for truth, peace and joy, after seeking them in vain in many things he concluded with his famous words: “and our heart is restless until it rests in God” (cf. Confessions, I, 1, 1).
True joy is not merely a passing state of mind or something that can be achieved with the person’s own effort; rather it is a gift, born from the encounter with the living Person of Jesus and, making room within ourselves, from welcoming the Holy Spirit who guides our lives. It is the invitation of the Apostle Paul who says: “May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess 5:23).
In this Season of Advent let us reinforce our conviction that the Lord has come among us and ceaselessly renews his comforting, loving and joyful presence. We should trust in him; as St Augustine says further, in the light of his own experience: the Lord is closer to us than we are to ourselves: “interior intimo meo et superior summo meo” (“higher than my highest and more inward than my innermost self”) (Confessions III, 6, 11).
Let us entrust our journey to the Immaculate Virgin whose spirit is exulted in God our Saviour. May she guide our hearts in joyful expectation of the coming of Jesus, an expectation full of prayer and good works.
Latin Liturgy
Magnificat Antiphons for December 17-23
“When John caught sight of Jesus coming toward him, he exclaimed: ‘…It is he of whom I said: After me is to come a man who ranks ahead of me, because he was before me.'” (Jn. 1:29-30)
O Wisdom, you come forth from the mouth of the Most High. You fill the universe and hold all things together in a strong yet gentle manner. O come to teach us the way of truth.
O Adonai and leader of Israel, you appeared to Moses in a burning bush and you gave him the Law on Sinai. O come and save us with your mighty power.
O stock of Jesse, you stand as a signal for the nations; kings fall silent before you whom the peoples acclaim. O come to deliver us, and do not delay.
O key of David and scepter of Israel, what you open no one else can close again; what you close no one can open. O come to lead the captive from prison; free those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.
O Rising Sun, you are the splendor of eternal light and the sun of justice. O come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.
O King whom all the peoples desire, you are the cornerstone which makes all one. O come and save man whom you made from clay.
O Immanuel, you are our king and judge, the One whom the peoples await and their Savior. O come and save us, Lord, our God.
[Biblical references : Deut 8:3; Prov 8:22f.; Heb 1:3; Ex 3; Ex 20; Isa 11:10; 52:15; Isa 22:22; 42:7; Lk 1:78; Mal 3:20; Lk10:24; Isa 28:16; Eph 2:14; Gen 2:6; Isa 7:14]
