ADVENT SUNDAY III “B”
DECEMBER 13/14, 2008
Today I’m going to talk about the election. This is not going to be a homily on our political process of six weeks ago. There are plenty of talking heads about that. Today’s scriptures have the common thread of election running through them. Whose election? Isaiah’s, John the Baptist’s, Paul’s yes, but also ours.
Isaiah proclaims that “the spirit of the Lord God” has come upon him and that the Spirit has “anointed him.” This passage always carries significant meaning and memory for me. On my ordination day as a priest, following the archbishop’s laying his hands on my head in the scriptural tradition of divine election and bestowal of office, and then the concelebrating priests present in turn laying their hands on my head signifying their unity in the priestly office of the bishop, the choir and assembly sang a hymn comprised of the verses of today’s reading from Isaiah. It was a proclamation both of my vocation and the mission I was to carry out as a priest. My vocation as a priest conforms me in a particular way to Jesus in his office as head of the church. Yet my particular vocation and mission flows from the common election by God shared by us all. At our baptism hands were laid on our heads accompanied by an anointing with the consecrated oil of Chrism as the minister of the sacrament proclaimed our vocation in Christ as “priest, prophet and king”. At confirmation we were once anointed with Chrism with the words, “Be sealed with the Holy Spirit.” Our election became permanent. Our particular vocation in the church as a single person, a married person, or an ordained deacon, priest or bishop in the various way we are called to live out our state in life arises from our fundamental election by God, like Isaiah, Paul and John the Baptist. None of us is worthy. It is by God’s grace that we have been chosen.
St. Paul in today’s epistle, and John the Baptist in the gospel, illustrate how we to live out our election. St. Paul tells us that we are to “rejoice always”, “pray without ceasing” and in every circumstance, to “give thanks” and, finally, not to “quench the Spirit.” Paul is not telling us that just because we have been elected by God life will be a carefree, sunny cruise over calm seas. St. Paul’s own life was marked by much hardship, suffering and ultimately a martyr’s death. What St. Paul is saying is that we need to always keep before us the truth of God’s gift and presence through the Holy Spirit in our lives. This is the grace for which we are to “pray always”, the grace that will supply us with whatever is needed to meet the challenges of life, the grace that enables us to “rejoice” because, true to his promise, Jesus is with us always even until the end of the world.
Like any election, our election by God is not for our benefit but for the benefit of others. When asked who he was and what his mission was all about, John points not to himself, but to the “one who is coming after me.” Like John, our election is about “preparing the way of the Lord.” John is the ultimate model of transparency. Like a window he conveys and allows others to see through him to the light that is God and Jesus whom he sent. We must do the same. Like Isaiah and John the Baptist we are “to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, release to prisoners, to announce a time of favor from the Lord”. As I reflected on this I thought of a few examples how our parish strives to live out our common election by God: our homebound ministers of Holy Communion and other parish visitors who minister to over 100 of our members weekly; the Matthew 25 Fund; this weekend’s collection for the retirement needs of religious order priests, brothers and sisters; our grade school and religious education students who each made a card and wrote a get-well message to my mother recently. Not big things as the world would judge them, but each and everyone an advent of the Kingdom of God among us.
I’m reminded of a story told by Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta. She was offering comfort to a dying man when he asked her, “This Jesus you speak of…is he like you?” Mother Teresa smiled. “Well, I try to be like him,” she responded. “Then I want to be his follower,” the man said before he died. This is the essence of our election, the vocation of our mission as prophets and apostles in the tradition of Isaiah, Paul and John the Baptist; preparing the way of the Lord.