Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Advent, C

Even Zephaniah, who has been called the “gloomiest” of the prophets, did not give devastation and judgment the last word. Zephaniah kept the last word for joy.
“The LORD, your God, is in your midst,
        he will rejoice over you with gladness,
             and renew you in his love.”

I have Mass on Sunday, December 15
at St. Isidore @ 9:30/11:30 am
at St. Andrew @ 5:00 pm

frjoedailey@gmail.com

Transcript

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke. 
The crowds asked John the Baptist, "What should we do?" He said to them in reply, "Whoever has two cloaks should share with the person who has none, and whoever has food should do likewise." Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they said to him, "Teacher, what should we do?" He answered them, "Stop collecting more than what is prescribed." Soldiers also asked him, "And what is it that we should do?" He told them, "Do not practice extortion, do not falsely accuse anyone, and be satisfied with your wages." 
Now the people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Christ. John answered them all, saying, "I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. 
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into his barn. But the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." 
Exhorting them in many other ways, he preached good news to the people. The Gospel of the Lord 

In his poem "Hoorah-ing in Harvest," the Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins is reflecting on the changing of the seasons. In the next to the last line of the poem, he realizes that he had not really seen the natural glory around him. He writes, "These things, these things were here, and but the beholder wanting." 
What a perfect job description for John the Baptist. He is training our eyes to see what is already in our midst. Grace is here. What is needed is someone to see it. What is wanted is the beholder. 
The crowds ask John, "What should we do?" John's answer is so radical we are in danger of missing it. Instead of waiting for a holy some day, inhabit the stuff of your life as deeply and as generously as you can right now. Share now. Be merciful now. Do justice now. 
There is no outside. We don't have to look out there. The kingdom of heaven is here, within and among us. The holy ground that matters most is the ground beneath your feet. 
In his letter to the Philippians, Paul urges us to stand firm in faith and let the fire of God's love be radiant in our lives. Rejoice in the Lord always. Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. 
"Have no anxiety at all" has to be the least obeyed command in the Bible. Notice what Paul says next. With thanksgiving, let your requests be made known. This seems backward to us. We would file our requests, and if God complies, then we give thanks, right? 
But Paul has it the other way around. Begin with gratitude. As Blessed Solanus Casey reminds us, "Give thanks ahead of time." 
We meet the adult John the Baptist in chapter 3 of Luke's Gospel, but Luke already introduced him to us in chapter 1 through his father, Zechariah. When his son is born, Zechariah is still unable to speak. He asks for a tablet and wrote, "John is his name." The name means "graced by God." 
Immediately, Zechariah's mouth was opened, his tongue freed, and he spoke, "Blessing God." From a heart overflowing with gratitude, the first word out of Zechariah's mouth is "blessed." 
Could gratitude be the antidote to anxiety? Feeling grateful every day keeps the envy at bay. Research has shown that gratitude reduces envy, facilitates positive emotions, and makes us more resilient. After all, if we are grateful for what we have, what room is there for envy to sneak in? It is quite possible that it is impossible to be anxious and grateful at the same time. 
John the Baptist points to the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. This sounds like judgment language to us. You better watch out. You'll get burned by the fire. 
But take a closer look at what John is saying. Every grain of wheat has a husk. The farmers even today use wind to separate these husks collectively called the chaff from the grain. The goal, of course, is to save every grain, not to separate the good grain from the bad grain. This is a metaphor of preservation and purification, not division. What the wind and fire remove are the impurities, the anxieties, self-absorption, apathy or greed that makes us less generous, less fair, or less respectful of others. 
December 11 was the birthday of Alexander Sholzhenitsyn, the Russian writer born in 1918. He famously wrote, "If only there were evil people somewhere, insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being, and who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" 
Surely, we can say as much about God's heart. 
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry reminds us in The Little Prince, 
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. 
What is essential is invisible to the eye." 
And as everyone knows, the reason the Grinch hated Christmas was that his heart was two sizes too small. 
Even Zephaniah, who has been called the gloomiest of the prophets, did not give devastation and judgment the last word. Zephaniah kept the last word for joy. The Lord your God is in your midst. He will rejoice over you with gladness and renew you in his love. 
On Christmas Eve, 1513, Fra Giovanni, a priest, scholar, architect, and teacher, sent this letter to a dear friend. 
"There is nothing I can give you which you have not, but there is much that, while I cannot give it, you can take. 
No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today. Take heaven. No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant. Take peace. 
The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. There is radiance and glory in the darkness. Could we but see, and to see, we have only to look. I beseech you to look."