Third Sunday C of Advent

Advent teaches us to live in reality with Christ
(Luke 3: 10-18)
Enjoy life.

Advent also includes the pre-Christmas sacrament of Reconciliation. It happens that in preparation for the reception of the sacrament of Reconciliation, we realize the reality of our lives. We no longer claim that we are better or different from the people we live with, the people we work with, the people we meet. Many times in preparation for confession, we realize that we did not live as we wished to live, that true joy cannot be lived outside of God, with sin in the soul. And so, after the sacramental forgiveness, we often realize that if we want to be happy, to experience true joy, we have to ask ourselves more often than the crowds of John the Baptist.

“What shall we do then” (Lk 3:10)?

John answers those who want to start a new life. Whether they are toll booths, soldiers, or other people, the answer for every state is to see true Love. He will tell the public, “Do not execute more than they have appointed you” (Lk 3:13). To the soldiers: “Do not bother anyone, do not wrong anyone, and be satisfied with your salary” (Lk 3:14). And another said He that hath two clothes let him give to him that hath nothing. He that hath meat, let him do likewise “(Lk 3:11). From the text, one can deduce the radical observance of the commandment of love, as the Old Testament and Christ taught: “… I did not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them” (Mt 5:17). Love manifests itself in active coexistence. John’s actions make it clear that the Messiah is not expected. John bows before Christ: “I am not worthy to lose his shoelaces” (Lk 3:16). John represents the Messiah, who will manifest his power in a completely different way. He points to the Holy Spirit in power and light, the power of which we know. “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Lk 3:16). Only in the Holy Spirit can he experience spiritual joy. John points to the activity of repentance. In other words, you can put it this way: Change your mind. Change your life. Change. What did they think in the words of St. John the Baptist? John did not want them to wear a robe of camel’s hair, to eat only field honey and drink only milk. That would be very little. John calls on them to radically change their way of life. Yes, you can go to confession, yet life does not change after confession. Jesus will clearly and decisively what needs to change, what to leave, what to give up, what to despise. It can be deduced from the Gospel that Jesus wants something more but in our favor. Advent is a time to think, a time to compare your life with the life of a year, two or three … Real joy is the one that enriches not only outside, but especially inside us, which perhaps hurts, but then heals, heals, and is the beginning of new life. And this is pointed out by today’s Sunday, which has the adjective “Laetare” – “Rejoice.”

It is necessary to live true joy. A joy that cannot be bribed that is enough in itself, and that is and shines with its light, that comes where it likes and stays as long as it wants, that makes life suddenly transparent, fills it with happiness at one point. We cannot buy this joy. This is because it has an essential and inseparable relationship to the good. Only good has that weight of being that can be the ground for a fragile flower of joy. The human good is the space in which joy lives well. Good calls her, attracts her, attracts her, so strongly that when satisfaction is frightened and recedes, it is necessary to ask where the enemy, evil, has entered immediately. Joy is born of good, lives and blooms well, but good also works because it is good itself, even the highest; it encourages, calls, and gives strength to interest. Joy without good and good without pleasure are like a smile without Love and Love without a smile. We know great happiness, but tiny, barely perceptible charms are also. But each of them shines with the same bright light. Yes, they are good and small, and each good gives pleasure to its transparency, unmistakably identified grandeur.

There are many great joys, but their role is to be a milestone, mark a new direction in life, and tell the human soul with absolute certainty that the whole astronomy is beating them on the astronomical clock. Great joy floods the soul like a flood and cannot be resisted. Later, when the waters fall, the skeptic can understand, ask about the possibility of mistakes, convince himself of coincidences and misunderstandings, and come to believe that the moment when joy has given itself and fulfilled his life is what he calls an unreal dream.
The mission of small joys is to bring us to encouraging words. The pleasure is not small, because it would be only half. Little joys exist because life has its minor events. After all, living is heroism and generosity and simple attention, unexpected tenderness, a word of appreciation, and the chance that will help. Life is not and cannot be based on such joys. They are like butterflies in a flowering garden. If they fly away at the time, the meadow is no longer so beautiful, but it still blooms. If butterflies flew out permanently, would it be so lovely without them? Certainly not! Likewise, small joys do not make the axis of life, but they cannot be given up definitively or with impunity. In this mean Advent time, we realize that man lives in time and the hand of time is icy and relentless, and there are very few whose inner fire is strong enough not to go out when touched.

Every and the minor joy is in itself a victory, a victory of the forces of good over evil, a victory of life. But happiness can also triumph over life itself and fill it all within. Although it may sound unacceptable, it is still possible to rejoice. “Rejoice in the Lord continually! I repeat Rejoice” (Philippians 4: 4)! Even in such a situation, when the difficulties and crosses of life, the death of a neighbor, and the like come upon us, love is more robust, and joy is true. Happiness can be accepted, and good and his own life can be taken. Accept but not submit to your power. Only a free decision for good is in our power. It is only in our ability to open the door of joy behind which it stands and knocks so that we can open it.

We are all called to live and to bring joy to others. Whoever has failed to do this, has not wanted it, and so on, can ask God for a reward of fun in the kingdom of God?
Anthony de Melo wrote of the good news: “I imagine I have not many days left to live … I can choose only one person or at most two to be my companions in these last days. I’ll make this painful choice … and talk to this man, explain to him why I decided to him. I imagine that I am allowed to have a three-minute telephone conversation with the people I have decided, or that I can send someone a letter … Who will I choose? … What will I write? … What will each of them tell me? .. I’m also given one last chance to meet people I don’t like or ignore. If I take this opportunity, what will I say to each of them now that I am standing on the threshold of eternity? … People ask me if I have any last wishes. Do I also have a desire? 

Advent is a relatively short period, and therefore there is nothing to delay. If we want to survive the feasts of the Nativity in joy and peace, we should respond to the voice of the Adventist preacher John the Baptist, as he advised by those who came to him, especially the toll booths and soldiers. After all, we want everyone to experience as much joy as possible during these days. To make the most of these days for our souls. It is good to think of others or have put them in order, contrary to justice in our lives, so that we do not act like a lion from Aesop’s fable.
It is said that they hunted lions, donkeys, foxes, and wolves together. Together, they caught a deer, dividing it into four parts. When they were about to do so, the lion said, “Wait a minute. I want to note that two elements belong to me for my courage; I cannot give up the third. Acknowledge, for my family’s appetite, and who among you wants to challenge my right to the fourth part, please let him out. After these left words, the three companions left. As can be seen from the behavior of the lion, the amount can also be four quarters, that is, everything.

Let us ask ourselves: What is justice? Someone can rejoice in different circumstances. You can also delight in sin. But you can also die while sinning. God came into the world to redeem and save us. God wants our eternal joy. And that is why we should live our lives worthy of our unadulterated, lasting pleasure. For this joy, we are willing and capable of everything. This is a souvenir for our conscience questioning in the pre-Christmas preparation for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

It will be an unpleasant procedure for many of us, customary, mechanical, or traditional! And joy? Often none. And that is why it is time to take a decisive step, a decision … Today, now, so that joy is an enrichment for each of us.