3RD SUNDAY OF ADVENT – B
John 1:6-8, 19-28
Jesus is “the reason of the season” and
at the same time “the reason to rejoice in all seasons”!
Today
is GAUDETE SUNDAY! It is a day of
rejoicing because the Savior is close at hand! St. Paul reminds us in the
second reading: “Always be joyful!” It is not just about joyful
expectancy that Christmas is very near but a reminder that Jesus is the reason
to rejoice in the midst of life’s pains, sufferings and tragedies.
“There is no man born of a woman greater than
John the Baptist,” says the Lord. The greatness of John the Baptist
lies in his being the greatest prophet and witness par excellence.
As a witness, John the Baptist was a sign pointing to someone greater than
himself. And yet he knew his place in
this great drama; he knew he was just a messenger, a mere voice! When the
people flocked to him, he could have used that opportunity to magnify himself but in all his humility he said “I
am not fit to undo the strap of his sandal; he must increase, I must decrease.”
Our greatness does not depend on what
others think of us; it does not depend on earthly powers, not even on
popularity. It hinges in our personal
relationship with God; on how we are able to carry on the mission entrusted to
us. The higher we go up in the ladder of life, the more we need to be
rooted in our nothingness before the all-embracing providence of God!
To be a witness today may not require us
to shed our blood like what the early Christians did in professing their
faith. To be a witness means to live the
faith in an extraordinary way; it is to
be a sign pointing away from the self but towards others. It is the un-selfing of one’s ego, of one’s personal agenda and anything about self-consumption towards filling up
the needs of others who have less in life.
It is the movement of breaking from the constriction of self in order to
be outpoured to those who are wanting so that they may have more in life. This is not about the destruction of the self
but rather the emptying of anything that is un-godly to give a space for the
presence of the divine who wants to indwell in our hearts!
John the
Baptist also reminds us: “Standing among you, unknown to you, is the
one who is coming…” How often do we recognize the Messiah walking in
our midst? We wait for him and look for him in the grandest of things but he comes though incognito
amongst the poorest, the lowest and the least. Unless we humble ourselves and
learn to stoop down in the caves where the Unknown is lying amongst the crib of
inhumanity, we will miss the divine encounter we have been longing
for.
A radical change of heart is what we
need for us to encounter the Savior! It
is only through a heart willing to bleed out of love for God and others that we
can truly celebrate our continuous birthing together with the eternal birthing
of God in the Eucharistic manger of self-giving!
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