Homily – Third Sunday of Advent – Year C (12/16/12)

            I don’t have any answers. I don’t think anyone does. We look at a tragedy like the events in Newtown and we can wonder why, we can wonder where God was, we can wonder if there really is any goodness in the world.

            And it is especially difficult to try to reconcile what has happened with the celebration of the Third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, a Sunday when our readings are calling for us to rejoice. “Shout for joy!” our first reading says, “sing joyfully”. Paul tells the Philippians, “Rejoice in the Lord always – I’ll say it again, Rejoice!” And the Gospel says that John preached “good news”. On most days, and especially on this past Friday, the news seems to be anything other than “good”.

            With so much pain in the world, and with such spectacular tragedies as Sandy Hook Elementary, what could be the cause for rejoicing? Zephaniah tells the people to rejoice because the Lord is in their midst. Isaiah tells us that God is among us and Paul tells the Philippians that the Lord is near. But it sure doesn’t feel like the Lord is among us or near us or in our midst when we experience tragedy and sorrow. And yet we are called to rejoice – regardless of how we FEEL. Because our joy is not a religious sentiment or an emotional happiness, but rather a confidence in God’s care no matter what comes our way.

            Our joy is grounded in the conviction that Jesus came and did, in fact, redeem humanity – even in the face of evidence to the contrary. And so we are told to fear not. Paul tells us, have no anxiety. Because our Advent joy comes from our realization, our confidence, our belief that God is, in fact, in our midst, and that God’s presence can so transform our lives that the promises of peace and security and harmony will one day be fulfilled. Our Advent joy comes from our insistence on celebrating this Paschal Mystery – the commemoration of Jesus’ own suffering as redemptive and as our salvation. And we sing “Alleluia” at the raising of the Gospel as an act of defiance in the face of evil. Our Advent joy comes from our conviction that because of the incarnation, because of Jesus taking on our humanity, because God is truly with us, is Emmanuel, that we can look at tragedy and know that humanity is more than the evil and wickedness that we see.

            We will continue to be confronted by sorrow and sadness in our lives – it is sometimes close to us like unemployment or sickness or loss of loved ones, and it is sometimes far away - but still touching us deeply - like Newtown, CT. If we are to be people of Advent joy, we might ask, like the people in today’s Gospel, “What are we to do?” Paul’s answer is to lead lives of kindness, to be people of gentleness, to forego any retaliation. John the Baptist’s answer is to be who you are called to be – to find goodness and right living and care for others in the ordinary circumstances of our lives.

            There are no answers to our “why?” in the face of such incomprehensible tragedy. All we can do, if we are truly intent on Christ’s “advent”, is to bring a different way of living into these situations. All we can do is to take hold of God’s hand so that there is some effect of God’s love in our surroundings. All we can do is to bring our own reflection of Jesus’ presence to our own circumstances so that at least a few areas of the world are made receptive to God’s truth and justice and made ready to receive Jesus when he comes again.