Third Sunday of Advent A
When
Cardinal Timothy Dolan
was
introduced as the next Archbishop of New York
almost
five years ago,
he
was peppered with hard-hitting questions.
The
Catholic Church—in the city, the state, the country—
was
facing many challenges:
sexual
scandals, fewer people in the pews,
a
decreasing number of priests.
What
would be his strategy
for
dealing with such ponderous problems?
He
answered very simply:
“Happiness attracts.”
Dolan
said this specifically
about
recruiting more priestly vocations,
but
it could just as easily have been his answer
to
almost any one of the many other concerns faced by the Church.
“What
weighs on me the most,”
he once said in an interview,
“is
the caricature of the Catholic Church
as
crabby, nay-saying, down in the dumps,
discouraging,
on the run.
And
I’m thinking if there is anything
that
should be upbeat, affirming, positive, joyful,
it
should be people of faith.”
Happiness attracts.
“What
did you go out to the desert to see?”
Thus
Jesus questions the disciples of John the Baptist.
What
were they expecting?
A
pushover—easily swayed like a reed in the breeze?
A
powerbroker—robed in royal majesty?
Or
a prophet—one willing to say the tough stuff:
less
concerned with tickling people’s ears
than
with prodding their consciences?
What
did they expect?
What
did they go out to the desert to see?
What
should people expect to see when they see…us?
named
him Person of the Year the other day,
Pope
Francis had been in the news quite a bit
for
the release of his Apostolic Exhortation,
Political
types have had much to say
about his diagnosis of what’s wrong
with the modern global economy.
about his diagnosis of what’s wrong
with the modern global economy.
A
few Church-watchers have gleefully noted
what
the Pope had to say about homilies:
that
they shouldn’t be too long.
(Please—hold your applause!)
But
what hasn’t gotten
nearly enough attention—in my opinion—
nearly enough attention—in my opinion—
is
the opening section of that document,
the
premise upon which stands all the rest:
that
Christians ought to be joyful people
because
they have encountered Christ.
There are Christians—Pope Francis writes—
whose lives seem like Lent without Easter.
I realize of course that joy
is not expressed the same way at all times in life,
especially at moments of great difficulty.
Joy adapts and changes, but it always endures,
even as a flicker of light born of our personal
certainty
that, when everything is said and done,
we are infinitely loved.
I understand the grief of people
who have to endure great suffering,
yet slowly but surely we all have to let the joy of
faith
slowly revive as a quiet yet firm trust,
even amid the greatest distress… (6)
what
would they see?
What
impression would we give them?
Would
they see the faces of people
who
couldn’t think of a better place to be
on
a cold and snowy Sunday morning?
Or
would they see the faces of people
who
are just waiting to get this over with?
If
coming into our church
looks
more like the waiting room at the dentist’s office
than
it does the living room on Christmas morning
with
eager youngsters gathered around the tree,
that
our pews aren’t as full as they used to be.
How
can we get others to accept the Good News
if
all we do is go about saying, “Good grief”?
“Go,”
Jesus said, “and tell John what you see:
the
blind see and the lame walk…
and
the deaf hear and the dead are raised
and
the poor are told of good news.”
After
long and patient waiting,
the
prophecies of old were being fulfilled in him;
the
Lord had come to save his people.
Imagine
what an effect it would have on Malone
if
people went forth from this place saying
that
they had seen lives changed,
people
singing and smiling,
welcoming
the stranger and caring for each other as family—
Jesus’
twofold commandment of love being beautifully fulfilled.
It can be that way! No—it must be that way!
On
the two Sundays each year
that
I come out wearing rose-colored vestments,
I
see more smiling faces in the congregation
than
I do at most any other time.
I’d
wear this color every week if that were all it takes!
Joy—it
has been wisely said—
is
the infallible sign of the presence of God. (cf. Léon Bloy)
Let’s
make sure people can see that God is here.
Rejoice!
Happiness
attracts.
Be a
joyful messenger preparing the way before the Lord.
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