“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ….What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it..”(John 1 1-5)

The Book of Malachi, is the last book of the Old Testament and Malachi, living several hundred years before John the Baptist, was the last prophet of the Old Testament.  He prophesied the coming of the Messiah. In the New Testament, John is considered the greatest of the prophets because he witnessed in the wilderness to the one who stands among us, the light in the darkness. “He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.”

John was a voice crying out in the wilderness. I think we all experience this sense of wilderness as Christmas approaches. We are flooded with advertisements promising happiness and joy if only we buy this special gift for someone we love. “Diamonds and sterling and love at first sight—nothing shimmers quite like them or catches the light.” The musek in all the stores is annoying with its mechanical, soulless repetition of “Joy to the World” or the “Little Drummer Boy” with his “ Pa rum pump um pum”. The word ‘Christmas’ is removed from the public space and replaced by ‘X-mas’ or ‘Happy Holidays’.  Expectation far outreaches the reality—everyone looking for that perfect gift.  This is the wilderness of our time.  As Karl Rahner puts it so well:

“Inevitably we keep discovering that we too are in the wilderness, the wilderness of a great city, the wilderness of isolation, a wilderness that seems to have no center, a wilderness we cannot feel at home in.”(The Great Church Year,p30)

Standing in this wilderness, we are the ones John is speaking to. He reminds us in his strong clear voice, “Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.” (Gospel)

The false promise of joy that our commercialized Christmas presents is not the ‘joy’ of this Sunday. Our liturgy speaks to us of a far deeper reality—we rejoice because ‘our salvation is near at hand.’ This is why we call this Sunday “Gaudete Sunday” taken from the opening prayer: “Gaudete in Domino semper: iterum dico, gaudete.” “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say rejoice.” (Phil 4:4-6).  We are joyful because the promise has been kept. The gift of God’s only Son has changed forever our human horizon.  Before, we looked out at that horizon and saw only sin, death and darkness; now we see the light which has shone in the darkness and the promise of a place where we will be able to say, ‘I’ve come home’; a place where the unfinished symphony of our lives will be finished. We must be constantly awake, constantly ready or we may not see the one who stands unknown among us;  the light of the Word shining in the darkness gives us hope and this is why we are joyful.

We are anointed at our baptisms and confirmations, and clothed with the baptismal gown, ‘the armour of light’ as Paul puts it , the robe of righteousness, in order to bring this profound sense of joy into our family, places of work and our community.  Isaiah tells us how we need to do this:

This is our prophetic role today. All of us meet people in our families, among our friends and acquaintances who are oppressed or brokenhearted, people who are prisoners of their addictions, people paralyzed in the prisons of depression, anxiety and hopelessness. It is to these people we must bring joy by standing with them and helping them. It is then that we become the “voice crying out in the wilderness” helping others to recognize Jesus in the very midst of their suffering.  Christians are persecuted and imprisoned  in many parts of the world because they standup for social justice, they speak out against wrongful imprisonment, they speak out against euthanasia and abortion, they speak out against the destruction of the environment. An interesting exercise for all of us is, if I were accused of being Christian, what would I be accused of? What would I have done to counter injustice and oppression that would offend the powers that be?

Time Magazine chose Pope Francis as its ‘Person of the Year” in 2013 because of his humility and his joy. He has shown  more by his actions than his words his baptismal anointing to “bring good news to the oppressed.” It is no coincidence that his first exhortation was entitled, The Joy of the Gospel. In it we read in the first chapter,

“The Gospel, radiant with the glory of Christ’s cross, constantly invites us to rejoice. ..’Rejoice’ is the angel’s greeting to Mary. Mary’s visit to Elizabeth makes John leap for joy in his mother’s womb. In her song of praise, Mary proclaims: ‘My spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.’ When Jesus begins his ministry, John cries out: ‘For this reason my joy has been fulfilled.’ Jesus himself ‘rejoiced in the Holy Spirit’. His message brings us joy: ‘I have said these things to you, so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.’” This is what we celebrate today on Gaudete Sunday.

Last week as I was driving home from my office and listening to As it Happens on CBC, I was almost brought to tears hearing the interview with a First Nations lady, the great-aunt of Tina Fontaine. Here was light shining in the darkness. Tina was her 15 year old niece who was brutally murdered in August of this year. The occasion of the interview was the conviction of two men who had killed Tina’s father several years ago. As Tina’s aunt described the terrible pain of the loss of Tina who had been like her daughter, she cried softly.  She said that she wondered if there were any good people left in the world. Her world was so filled with violence and corruption that she was on the verge of despair. She felt overwhelmed by the darkness surrounding her. Then she related how the outpouring of support  from complete strangers from all over the world had restored her faith. ‘There are so many good people in the world’, she said. “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it..”(John 1 1-5)

: “Gaudete in Domino semper: iterum dico, gaudete.” “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say rejoice.” (Phil 4:4-6).  Amen.