If you asked John the Baptist, What should I do?,
do you know what he would say to you?
Our lives are fraught with anxiety and fear; our journey
through Advent is a response to this very human state, and involves a passage
through restoration to renewal and joy.
In Sunday's reading from Zephaniah, the people have turned away from
relationship to worship other gods; it is time, the prophet tells them, to
return to the one God, to open their hearts to that relationship, and to
believe in the renewal that God so wants to confer upon them. Their joy will be born of God's action in
their lives, of God's presence in their midst.
Then they, like the prophet Isaiah in this week's canticle, will make known God's wondrous deeds --
how? By acclaiming his name to all nations.
Salvation is a fountain of
ongoing goodness, a blessing that is born of relationship with God.
In John the Baptist's time, the people are experiencing a
similar crisis. The Gospel of Luke makes it clear that it has been generations
since they have had a prophet to share God's word with them. Moreover, they are living in an occupied land
and know they need to reconnect with God, to seek out that relationship that
they have neglected for some time. What is it that we should do? they ask
John, who offers them a baptism of repentance and a hope for an even more
powerful transformation to come: one is coming after him, he says, who will baptize with
water and fire. Yet
baptism is just the beginning, as Paul tells the fear-ridden Philippians. Anxiety is keeping this community from being
joyful about what Christ has done and continues to do in them; they seem to
have forgotten that salvation is transforming them, even at this moment. What is
it that they should do? Paul is clear: their kindness
should be known to all; they should
rejoice when no one expects them to find joy.
Paul, like Zephaniah, Isaiah, and John the Baptist, is
calling for a concerted shift in perspective, a new focus. What is
it that we should do? We, too, are
called to remain focused on the love that is at work in us, on the salvation
that is ours, because God's love is eternal and won't pass away. Then
peace, rather than fear or anxiety, can fill
our hearts, and we will be doing exactly what it is we should do: embodying that fountain of salvation, spreading the
love of God that is ours to all the world.
This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
Image source: Wordle
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