LECTIONARY READINGS
First reading: Zephaniah 3:14-18
Responsorial psalm: Isaiah 12:2-6
Second reading: Philippians 4:4-7
Gospel: Luke 3:10-18.
Link to readings
This Sunday in Advent was traditionally known as Gaudete Sunday because of the theme of “rejoicing” that pervades it. (Gaudete, the Latin for “Rejoice”, being the opening word of the old entrance [Introit] antiphon.) The liturgy invites us to rejoice because at the halfway moment of Advent we are aware of how close we are to proximity of the salvation that will come to us at Christmas.
DO NOT FEAR
The main theme in the First Reading, from Zephaniah 3:14-18, is “Do not fear”; Israel’s God is so close as to be actually already “in your midst”. Even more striking perhaps is the assurance that the Lord God “will renew you by his love” and “will dance with shouts of you for you”. Scripture is constantly challenging our image of God. The idea of the Lord God as one who “dances with Israel as on a day of festival” is perhaps novel in Australia – though I have been at liturgies in Africa where everyone, including the clergy, join in the dance. We have lost a great deal by reducing our liturgical celebrations to something so “spiritual” and so cerebral. If Scripture invites us to think of God as dancing with shouts of joy, perhaps we should not be so hesitant to bring our bodies and their capacity for movement back into our celebrations.
Likewise, St. Paul insists in the Second Reading, from Philippians 4:4-7, that his community rejoice. Joy stems above all from a sense of being loved. In the Christian community the experience of the Spirit is essentially a sense that one is loved by God and lovingly grasped within God’s saving design (Rom 5:5; 8:15; Gal 4:6-7). Of course, anxieties and worries remain. Paul’s remedy for this is that they be taken to God in prayer. Also, he urges the community to cultivate at all times a sense of thanksgiving. Thanking and blessing God, even for the difficult things that come our way, creates a mysterious sense of peace that is truly the gift of God.
JUSTICE AND GENEROSITY
The Gospel, Luke 3:10-18, returns to the preaching of John the Baptist. This comes in two rather different parts. In response to the people’s query as to how conversion of heart might work itself out in practice, John first offers some concrete suggestions, addressed to three distinct groups: the crowds, tax collectors and soldiers. Beneath the advice in each case is a central Lukan concern: nothing so hinders relationship to God, nothing so dehumanises human beings and ruins life in community, as attachment to wealth and possessions. In each case John urges justice and generosity. The tax collectors and the soldiers (soldiers in Palestinian society of the time had the role, more or less, of police in our society today) were both in a position to extort money from ordinary people. John exhorts the tax collectors to exact no more than is their due. The soldiers on the other hand were to “be content with their pay” in the sense of not seeking to augment it by violence and extortion. Social justice is always the acid test of true conversion of heart.
The second part of John’s message returns more directly to his role as precursor of Christ. Deflecting expectation away from the idea that he himself might be the Messiah, John points to the distinction between his role and that of the One who is to come. He baptises with water – a simple ritual of repentance. The Messiah will baptise “with the Holy Spirit and fire”.
EXPERIENCE OF THE SPIRIT
This description of the role of Jesus sounds rather threatening. In effect, however, the “baptism” that Jesus brings should be understood in a metaphorical sense. It probably should be referred to the experience of the Spirit, where the Father’s address to Jesus following his baptism (“You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on you” [Luke 3:22]) is extended to believers. The love and favour that Jesus experiences from the Father will become the experience of all who respond in faith to the Gospel. The Church will undergo this “baptism” at Pentecost when the Spirit comes down upon the disciples in tongues, “as if of fire” (Acts 2:1-4), empowering them to take up the mission of Jesus.
John’s final description of the Coming One’s mission evokes the vivid image of wielding a winnowing fan to separate wheat from chaff. In fact, Jesus will hardly take up the threatening pattern of ministry that John sketches for him here. He will heal, and forgive, and warn, yes, but not judge or condemn; with sinners he will celebrate the mercy of God (5:27-32; 15:1-2). The divergence may explain why later, from prison, John sends messengers to ask whether Jesus is truly the One to come (7:20). As so often in Luke’s Gospel, we find both continuity and surprise in equal measure.
Brendan Byrne, SJ, FAHA, taught New Testament at Jesuit Theological College, Parkville, Vic, for almost 40 years. He is now Emeritus Professor at the University of Divinity (Melbourne). His commentaries on the Gospels can be found at Pauline Books and Media