Ken Overberg, S.J.

Dec 13, 2009,  Third Sunday of Advent
 
This Sunday's scriptures offer us a curious mix of joy and love along with profound challenge.
 
Our first reading is from the prophet Zephaniah, who lived around 625 BCE, a time of great political turmoil among the superpowers: Assyria, Egypt, and Babylon.  Israel suffered under these powers, and its people turned away from faithful religious observance.  After a strong call to conversion, the prophet speaks in today’s reading a word of hope and promise, using rich and charming images.
 
In his affectionate letter to the Philippians, our second reading, Paul writes about peace, a peace that surpasses all understanding.  He urges the people to rejoice in the Lord always.
 
The mood of the readings switches as we turn to Luke's gospel.  Here we meet again John the Baptizer, but now getting some sense of his strong message.  We are reminded that discipleship has a cost.
 
A word about John the Baptizer.  We are familiar with what our scriptures say about him, but all that comes from a Christian perspective.  Scholars say that John may have been better known than Jesus at the time.  His followers lasted hundreds of year; indeed, if they have survived the war, there is a small group still in Iraq.  All the gospels speak about John and Jesus (only Luke has them related).  It may well be that Jesus developed his sense of his own ministry through his encounter with John.
 
Let’s listen to God’s word!
 
+++++++++++
 
We hear wonderful words of comfort from Zephaniah and Paul: The Lord, your God, is in your midst.  The Lord will rejoice over you with gladness, and will renew you in love.  The Lord will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival (see 3:17, 18).  Surely, then, we can rejoice, rooted not in some hollow optimism but in profound hope and promise that are found in God's saving action in history.  Our God is in our midst, renewing us in love.  Surely we can be at peace.

We also hear challenging words from John the Baptizer.  This haunting figure now stands in our midst, leading us to ask:  "What then shall we do?"  His response (a message affirmed by Jesus) still rings true: generous care for those in need, fairness in business practice, no violence.  Advent themes suddenly present us with profound social, economic, and political challenges.  Issues of global poverty and hunger, corporate corruption, and national policies of war and nuclear arms become gospel concerns.

No hunger, no cheating, no violence. What a challenge for us and our society!  Paradoxically, accepting this challenge and cost of discipleship leads to authentic joy.

Comfort and challenge.  This third week of Advent, in the midst of stress and consumerism, what do you need to hear from Zephaniah and Paul?  How will you respond to John and Jesus? "What then shall we do?"