Cry out with joy and gladness, for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel. The response to today’s Psalm sums up the mood of our liturgical celebrations as we enter the third week of Advent and as such get closer to the commemoration of the birth of Christ. Our Advent liturgies, although expectant in nature, are nonetheless tempered with joyful cries because of what Advent liturgies anticipate: God deciding to lowerdown the self and come to our world in order to be with God’s creation. The fact of God coming to make a dwelling amongst God’s creation is something to be celebrated with hymns of praise and thanksgiving because it is something that is out of the ordinary. “Gods” have always been understood to dwell apart from their creatures. Moreover, it is not in the “nature” of gods to concern themselves with the “business” of creatures. Yet, it is this very thing that the God of Jesus Christ has exhibited ever since God entered into a relationship with creation.
In the First Reading, prophet Zephaniah exhorts his community to take courage in the knowledge that the Lord God in his merciful love will lift the judgment that had been labeled against Jerusalem. The prophet leads the members of his community in making shouts of exultation as he tells them of the good news of the Lord’s presence in their midst. As both their Creator and Savior, the Lord their God had decided to take away their misfortunes and to remove their reproach. As their king, the Lord wanted his presence to be a source of rejoicing and gladness rather than a cause for misfortunes. As their savior, the Lord wanted his presence to bring change for the better in the lives of the prophet’s brothers and sisters. The Lord never dwells among his people without effecting a change in the people’s lives. This was the message that John the Baptist preached to the people even as he urged them to prepare themselves for the Lord’s visitation.
As John the Baptist continued to prepare the people for the coming of the Lord, he challenged those who came to him for baptism not to rely on their election by God as a basis for their hope for salvation. Rather, they had to demonstrate that they had cast aside their rebellion by seeking reconciliation with God. In the words of the Baptist, they had to produce fruits worthy of repentance (cf. Luke 3:8). The baptism for which they were seeking John out had to effect some change in them. Their desire to change had to be reflected in their way of life. The crowd took this challenge head-on and in response, they inquired from the Baptist what they needed to do.
John the Baptist must have become delighted at what he was hearing. The crowd’s reaction (what should we do) was, without doubt, an indication that his preaching was yielding the desired results. As a forerunner to Jesus Christ and as someone whose ministry was to lay the foundation for the mission of the Christ, it was of great importance that the Baptist’s message be embraced and accepted. In his response to the crowd’s inquiry, John invited his hearers to what, with hindsight, we can call a gospel way of life: feed the hungry; clothe the naked; desist from oppressing the poor; don’t take advantage of others; don’t abuse your position; be just. It is as if the Baptist was reading from the very script from which Jesus would later read (cf. Matthew 25:31-46). Changing their way of life was not only going to be good news for the beneficiaries of their actions but also for them. An individual leading a righteous life goes about his/her business without any fear because he/she knows that the Lord is by his side (cf. Isaiah 12:2). This is why in the Second reading, St. Paul exhorts the Philippian community to a life of thanksgiving in the Lord. A life of thanksgiving, Paul tells them, consists in showing kindness to one and all. Such is the only way of demonstrating that one has known the Lord. Moreover, a life of thanksgiving rids one of anxiety and worries that result from hearing about the imminent arrival of the Lord. As our commemoration of the Lord’s coming draws near, may we, in heeding St. Paul’s exhortation, make ourselves worthy of the Lord by living out the gospel values that we have leant from Jesus. May we cry out with gladness at the thought of the Lord coming to dwell in our midst. Amen.