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Today’s first two readings
call us to rejoice. Why? Because the Lord is so near. Zephaniah attests
that “The Lord has removed the judgment against you. He has turned away
your enemies.” Isaiah proclaims “God indeed is my Savior . . . My
strength and my courage is the Lord . . . great in your midst is the
Holy One of Israel!” Paul affirms the message, “Rejoice in the Lord
always. The Lord is near. Have no anxiety at all . . . the peace
of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds
in Christ Jesus.”
What a great message for our anxious age. We have so much worrying us --
domestic and foreign terrorism, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, an
unstable economy, and so on, etc. It seems a little strange to
speak of rejoicing. But that is what we must do because we believe that
the Lord is near! He is so near that we can reach out and touch him.
Like the crowds who gathered around John the Baptist, we have a sense of
expectation. John told the crowds what to do-- live justice.
“Whoever has two cloaks or food should share . . . do not practice
extortion...” John’s teaching was solid, based on the best Old
Testament principles of justice.
But in Jesus we have been
baptized with the fire of the Holy Spirit. Because of the Spirit of
Christ in us we cannot be a people who stand around wringing our hands
over the hopeless state of the world. If there is something wrong with
the world, then it is up to us to fix it! We fix the world by
recognizing it for what it is. We are in the world but not of it. We
have the help of the Spirit to judge the things of this world. We are
salt and light, so then we must live the truth and witness to the truth.
We begin by recognizing our own sinfulness, our own need to turn back to
the Lord. There is no better way to prepare for the once and future
coming of the Christ than to celebrate the sacrament of his forgiveness,
Reconciliation. Be sure to take advantage of the extra times
scheduled for this sacrament this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
In many areas our society has abandoned its most important of values. We
no longer see the value of life. New life is feared more often than
welcomed. We have come to think that unless life is lived with
“quality,” then it is not worth living at all. Who has told us these
lies? How have we come to believe them? As disciples of Christ we
know that life draws its value from God and God alone. How selfish we
have become to think that others’ lives are not as valuable as our own.
And there are other truths we must defend, but fear not because the Lord
is near!
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