Our Lady of the New Advent, through your intercession obtain for us the grace of the Holy Spirit to help us to open the gates of hearts fully at this Holy Mass in order that the Heart of Christ, the Holy Eucharist, may come fully in, in order to heal us, free us, save us. Amen.

John 1; 6-28 Third Sunday in Advent. Gaudete Sunday. December 13, 2014

We rejoice and are glad as we await the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is what we proclaim today as we celebrate this Third Sunday of Advent, known as Gaudate Sunday. We await Jesus coming just like His herald, John the Baptist. John himself shows us the way to Christ and how to wait with patient, but joyful expectant hope…with excitement.

During the first century in Israel, the Romans controlled the entire political and religious life. Many people at the time of John were looking for political answers to their oppression by the Romans. Now, most of us have never had to live under foreign occupation in this country so it’s hard to image how terrible it must have been for the Israelites. So we can understand their questions. “Who would ever come to free them, who could possibly grant them liberty? The people who went out to see John the Baptist-had these same questions, “They asked John, “Are you the one, like Moses or David or Elijah that will lead a glorious and powerful army to victory over the Romans. Unfortunately, in their questions we see all too clearly that their hope was solely in human power, in human solutions, such as politics or even war.

John knew all too well the state of affairs in the country of Israel. Yet he saw hope not in human solutions, a political party or war, but in divine solutions. John saw the greatest enemy was the people’s own infidelity to the Lord. So, he preached boldly about the need for repentance, about turning from the real oppressor-sin. He knew that the real problem of the day was the hardness of people hearts, their refusal to give their total yes to God as shown by their following faithfully God’s commandments and teachings. John called them all to task, no exceptions; he called everyone even Kings and religious leaders to repentance.

But John not only preached repentance, he lived it. Listen to his humility in the responses he gave. “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness.” Not worthily to unloosen his sandal strap.’ John saw who he was in relation to God, that he, himself was totally dependant on God for everything. “I am not the one, Jesus is the one.” John knew the truth, he knew he himself needed a savior; he knew he could not fix his own problems, he hoped in God alone--God alone can save.

John pointed the world to the One who would come and who alone could fix the world—Jesus is the one. He is the one who will bring Glad tidings to the lowly, healing to the sick & liberty to the captives. What glad tidings these are and they make up the Good News of Jesus, the Gospel. This Gospel is not just a message, not just a holy book, it is a Person, a Divine Person, Jesus Christ-who is still truly, physically present among us in the Holy Eucharist—Jesus in the Holy Eucharist is the Message. He is THE friend to the lowly, the poor, the sick and oppressed. Jesus through His true presence in the Holy Eucharist will bring a victory, a victory much greater than any military victory over any enemy of this world.

Jesus shows us His definitive victory. One of the greatest military powers the world has ever seen threw everything that it had at him, even their greatest torture--crucifixion. The power of hell itself, threw everything it had at Him, even its greatest torture, the very power of death itself. And Jesus in return showed them and us an even greater power, the very power of God Himself. And because Jesus was God it was His own power, and He used it to defeat the power of hell itself by His glorious resurrection. The Resurrection shows us definitively that God’s power can swallow up anything the power of this world has to offer; anything the power of hell as to offer…This is indeed THE GOOD NEWS.

Jesus side is the winning side, the battle as already been won! If we are truly on His side, we will be victorious as well. But Jesus will lead us primarily to a spiritual victory just like His. Jesus will not necessarily take all our troubles away, we still have to, like Him, suffer and die, but He will give us His own Power in order, not only to prevail and to persevere, but to do so with Joy and peace. If we are with Jesus, no power in this world can defeat us; not death, not even the devil himself can take away our victory, our goal, which is heaven and a share in the eternal life and family of God.

Along with His victory, Jesus brings with Him as well the power to heal the broken hearted, He saves by healing. The heart in the bible always stands for the whole person, the very core of the person, all that we have and are. Jesus has the power to heal our heart, but we have to give it to Him, better yet, to freely offer it to Him so that He can heal it. We try to offer our heart fully at Holy Mass, no strings attached. To lift up our heart, means to offer it fully to the one who is the King of hearts in order to make Him the Lord of our life and become one with Him in Love.

When God is not the Lord of our heart, our heart becomes broken, shattered, divided. When God is not number One in our life, over and above all else, the very organizing principal of life is missing. Our life becomes divided, shattered, we run to and fro, following this impulse and that impulse, but never finding peace or meaning in our lives. We try this self help program, we listen to this guru on T.V. and then that one, we try to grab this created thing, this new technological marvel or that one, but never do we ever find fulfillment or peace, not to mention joy. Jesus is our only meaning in this life.

Jesus heals the broken hearted by coming to live in our hearts but only if we open the gates to them. O come Emmanuel, come live in our heart. This is the very mission of the Church to heal broken hearts by the power of Jesus resurrection which comes to us in and through the Sacraments. We too live in a broken hearted world, one which is marked with conflict- wars, divisions, and a general disregard for God and the things of God. We too want to see the solutions to all of our problems apart from God. We too think we can save ourselves; we can solve all of our problems and we don’t want to conform our lives to God’s truth in order to do it. Yet, this is so far from the truth. We are helpless and cannot save ourselves nor solve all of our problems apart from God and His truth.

Jesus victory brings with it as well the power to bring liberty to the captives. But again, Jesus freedom is not a physical freedom from the problems or powers of this world, but it is a true freedom, the freedom from sin. Israel wanted freedom from the worldly power of the Romans, Jesus showed them that their captivity to the Romans was really a result of their sin. Sin is the ultimate slavery. Sin is addictive. It is very addictive, very oppressive and there are many in our day, that are captive to its power. O Come, O Come Emmanuel and Ransom captive, Israel. Israel, is a symbol here of our souls captive to sin.

We know that we so much want to do good, and to live the life God calls us to live. But there is a war inside of us, a war in which we know the good to do, that which God wants us to do, but many times we just can’t seem to bring ourselves to do it. Pride, anger, lust, sloth, envy, avarice, gluttony, these deadly sins have us in their grip, they can hold us for ransom and keep us from doing God’s Holy Will. The Good News is Jesus comes to give liberty to the captives, liberty to us, to free us from these sins & to win the battle that wages within us. And how does He do it. HE does it by giving to us a share in His own redemptive work. HE gives us a mission to help others held ransom.

This is our mission, our apostolate. He wants us to get off ourselves, off our self-centeredness, to let go of our petty obsessions and bring the Good news of His coming in the Holy Eucharist, of His Divine Power in the Holy Eucharist to others. Jesus gives each of us our own mission to take His divine love out into the daily world in which we live, to love others for love of Him. He says to each of us, “Show others my love so that I can heal them, free them, save them thru you. “Take what you received at this Holy Mass, namely, the Eucharist, which is my Heart, my Divine Love, my whole self and go out into the world and live for God alone and love others with my own Love alive in your heart. Do it for love of me.

Let us pray. St. John the Baptist, through your intercession, help us to have your same attitude, help us to have a humble submission to God and to live for Him alone. Help us with our lives to point out to others, the true Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. The one alone who has the power to free, to heal, and to save. Our Lady of the New Advent, through your intercession obtain for us the grace of the Holy Spirit to help us to open the gates of hearts fully at this Holy Mass in order that the Heart of Christ, the Holy Eucharist, may come fully in, in order to heal us, free us, save us. Amen.