Dear Brothers and Sisters,
It is a wonderful word the Lord gives us on this Gaudete Sunday which has this name since it speaks to us of joy. All the readings reflect this gift. The first reading begins with: ‘Shout for joy, O daughter Zion! Sing joyfully… be glad with all your heart.’ The responsorial psalm says, ‘Cry out with joy and gladness for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.’ He is close to us and is in you and he is great in your midst. And St. Paul says to the Philippians, ‘Rejoice in the Lord always. I say it again: rejoice.’ The gospel also wants to give us this joy which is a characteristic of a Christian. This is why the Church calls today Gaudete Sunday.
A person experiences joy when he feels saved from death. He has experienced some moments of deep anguish, and he sees that he can die at any moment. He has the sense that ‘I am not getting out of this one’, whatever it is, I have no idea. Have you experienced this fear at some moments of your life? Then you hear a word that helps you to be calm and takes you out of that fear, out of that death. This is true joy; it comes from the recognition that you are loved by the Lord. When I confess my sins, I always feel cheerfulness and peace. Also celebrating the Eucharist is something that fills me with joy. I may arrive tired and sad because of my sins but I always sense that the Lord saves me in every Eucharist. The joy lasts much or little depending on how much I listen to the devil.
A priest friend of mine said the happiest day of his life was the day of his ordination. Not in a clerical way but that he saw how close the Lord was to him even in the midst of his weaknesses. He felt loved to be able to serve others in this way. He cried for joy and wept like a little child. He still has this joy many years later and this is what defends him from the devil. What do you have to be sad about, brothers and sisters, don’t you see that the Lord has given you everything?
Rejoice then, cheer up. You don’t rejoice only because you are told to do so, but because you experience something truly amazing. To tell you to be joyful doesn’t do anything. It is the love of God in your life and mine that gives us this cheerfulness. These readings are marvelous. Even last week we were told by John the Baptist to prepare the way for the Lord, to convert! Today when the people ask John the Baptist what should we do, he says, ‘Whoever has two cloaks should share with the person who has none and whoever has food should do likewise.’ He tells the tax collectors also not to get a new job but be honest; don’t collect more than what you should do. He does not demand from anyone. Be content with your pay he tells the soldiers.
This word is serious for each one of us as it was for those people he approached that day. Don’t make demands on your spouse or your boss. Be content with your pay. God sees what you need, and he gives it to you. But often we are not content with what he gives us. Either we want more or something entirely different from what we have. We are not satisfied with what God has given us. Often, we don’t accept it. You want more or you want something else.
This is the situation of man. We want the thing that we don’t have. The fat one wants to be skinny; the married one wants to be single. The priest wishes he got married. The one with curly hair wants it straight and vice versa. The children are the opposite of what you want. They are lazy bums like their father. You think your neighbors’ kids are better than yours. We are always discontented; thinking that our life should be different.
Conversion is to know that your life is well done, perfect for you. Your reasoning about your history is wrong. You think your dad’s death was wrong or to be poor is a mistake. But if you had money you would not trust in God. God wants to see that loving your reality, your cross, is the only thing that will make you happy. You are starting to see that the Lord is the one who provides for you. He gives you in abundance at times and other times you go without.
It is wonderful to enter into this dynamic of life. Conversion is when you live with your reality, with your eyes wide open. Then your relationship with God and with others is different. You see that you don’t need to change anything in your life, not even your spouse. Conversion is not to demand anything from the other. We often demand that the other person love us. But God doesn’t demand that from us. He doesn’t ask us for anything. He loves you are you are. He does not need you to change the way you are to gain his love. He loves you as you are, with all your weaknesses: pride, anger, envy, arrogance, lust, etc. God loves you as you are and does not demand anything from you.
I don’t know if you understand the last part of the gospel because most of us do not live on a farm. It says that our Lord is coming and he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. What is baptism? It is to be converted. Baptism is also faith. John the Baptist says the Lord will come with his winnowing fan. What is that? When the wheat is cut it has to be separated from the straw. The winnowing fan helps you to throw the wheat in the air and the straw will blow away, but the wheat falls since it is heavier. This is what separates the wheat from the chaff. This is what the Lord does with all of us. It is the grain or the fruit that remains. The wheat is ground and made into flour and then into real bread. God wants to give you this mission to be bread for others. That you be food for others, but first you need to be crushed, like Christ was crushed on the cross.
This is what your baptism means. If you don’t want to be crushed on the cross, if you do not accept this suffering, then go to your baptismal parish and erase yourself from their books. Baptism is to give your life for the other and if you don’t want to do this, then take yourself off the list. As a Christian you are called to give your life for the other. There is straw in our life, and it is necessary otherwise where will the fruit come from? The straw is our sins, our weaknesses which are fundamental for us to bear fruit. Oh, happy fault, we sing at the Easter Vigil. The sin of our first parents gained for us such a great Savior, the Son of the Father.
The grain cannot grow only in the air; it needs straw. Then, it grows into a bush, which is needed only to give birth to this fruit that comes from our weaknesses, our sins. Precariousness is necessary, brothers and sisters. How else will God manifest his resurrection to you if you are not half dead. How can he save your life if you are not about to die? How can he cure you if you don’t have leprosy? How can you receive light if you are not blind? All those sins are necessary to that we can give glory to God who is the only one who can save us. If you are not blind, how can God give you sight. This blindness is a marvel; it is so the glory of God can be shown to the world.
There comes a point where the Lord takes away the straw. It has fulfilled its purpose, which is to give fruit, for I am the Lord! Don’t be afraid! There will come a great wind, the Holy Spirit, to remove that straw. This is Advent. This is what the Lord wants to do with all of us. He wants to free us. Where sin abounds, grace abounds even more. This doesn’t mean we continue to sin, no! The Lord comes today so that you can be loved, as you are, without doing anything. He comes to love the sinner, the poor one, the one who is blind.
Jesus Christ comes to bring light to you so that you can ask like the blind man, Lord, that I may see! He doesn’t ask to be cured a year from now or next month! No, now is the moment to convert, to change. This is the hour of your change or heart! We need to hear a strong announcement! Convert! Come out of your blindness! This is what will give you peace!