3rd Sunday of Advent 2023
Isaiah 61: 1-2, 10-11; 1Thess 5: 16-24; John 1:6-8, 19-28
Those of you who are of a certain vintage may remember Adam Faith, singer and heart-throb of the early 1960s, who moved into acting, before dying still young. He is famous for singing some of the shortest songs ever recorded, and his most familiar hit is probably “What do you want (if you don’t want money)?”.
Another, perhaps less well known, had the title “Who am I?”, a question which recurred as a refrain throughout the song. It is a question which many people ask themselves today, sometimes coming up with rather peculiar answers relating to sex and gender; but it is also a question which all of us could usefully ask ourselves from time to time.
How would you define yourself? As a husband or wife, widow or widower, single person, religious sister, priest? Would you think of yourself first in terms of your occupation, as a teacher, engineer, factory worker, secretary, retired person? Or would it be in terms of your political convictions, as a Labour supporter, Lib Dem, Tory, or Green? Then, what about your religious outlook, your membership of the Church? When it comes down to “hey lads hey”, who are you?
One vital answer is provided by the prophet Trito-Isaiah (Third Isaiah) in today’s First Reading. This prophet, writing the final part of the Book of Isaiah, when the returned exiles had settled in Judah and Jerusalem, says on his own behalf, but in words which apply also to you and me:
“The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to bring good news to the poor, to bind up hearts that are broken; to proclaim liberty to captives, freedom to those in prison; to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord.”
Has it occurred to you that those prophetic words apply to you, that they express at least part of who you are? The Spirit of the Lord has been given to you, and you have been anointed, at your baptism and confirmation, when you were anointed with the oil of catechumens and the oil of chrism, an effective sign that the Holy Spirit had indeed descended on you. You, then, are to bring good news to the poor, to bind broken hearts, to proclaim liberty to those who are imprisoned by suffering, poverty, addiction, loneliness, shyness or whatever. You are to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord.
How are you to do this? As I suggested last week, it is a matter of action, not words, of being truly who you are, and who you are called to be. Last week, someone responding to my homily reminded me of the words of Pope St. Paul VI: “The modern world listens to witnesses rather than to teachers, and if they listen to teachers it is because they are also witnesses”.
You are people who are called to live out your baptism by being a presence of Christ in the world. “Authenticity” is a key word. You must actually be that presence: it must be part of who you are, as indeed it is, precisely because of your baptism.
In some sense, you must also be John the Baptist, that great Advent figure, preparing a way for the Lord in the wilderness of today’s world. You will notice that John identifies himself firstly by banishing false impressions. He is not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet, though Our Lord would indeed identify him as Elijah.
Perhaps you have to do the same. People may have wrong impressions of you. Again, it will be actions rather than words which will clear away those notions. If you are being true to yourself, if you are genuinely living out your baptismal anointing, if you are seeking to bring healing, support, strength, in small or great ways, in the context of a suffering world, you will indeed be John the Baptist, preparing a way for the Lord. Even more, you will be for people a presence of the Lord Himself, and you will be answering fully the question “Who am I?”.
