Third
Sunday of Advent – December 16, 2012
Epistle:
Philippians 4: 4-7 Gospel: John 1: 19-28
St. Paul tells us in today’s Epistle
reading to rejoice in the Lord. There is nothing more just than to rejoice in
our Lord. Be not solicitous, he says, which means be not anxious or impatient,
because the Lord is near, near to His Church and near to our souls. How can
anyone be near the burning Fire that Christ is and still be cold in their
hearts? Let us meet the Christ Child on
Christmas morning with our prayers, petitions and with thanksgiving, as St.
Paul also recommends to us today.
At the end of time and the Second
Coming of Christ false prophets will tell us that Christ is in the desert, and
in various other places, but they will not tell us where He really is – in the
Church, the Church that maintains the lines of succession from the Apostles and
has kept and still teaches the True
Faith they passed down to us. Christ resides in that Church, and that Church is
the city of our strength. It is Christ that makes it strong and has led it
through the ages against the Caesars and other persecuting emperors, against
ungrateful princes who stole from the poor, against heretics who have over time
denied every article of His Faith, against the so-called reformers who tried to
create a Christianity in which His Church had no part, and against the modern
philosophers who have set the Church down as just one more system that has been
tried and failed and now lies in ruins, and against the followers of Mohammed
who try to spread their false faith through terror. All of these have passed
away or will pass away, but His Word shall not pass away. (Mark 13:31)
Thank the Christ Child this
Christmas for our Faith that has withstood all attacks. Even as the Vatican II
church teaches its many errors, we can take joy along with St. Athanasius,
Bishop of Alexandria, when in the Fourth Century the Arian heresy controlled
almost all Catholic churches. Athanasius told his flock to take heart “for they
have the churches but we have the faith.” That is the state of the Church again
today as the Modernist heretics have control of almost all Catholic churches.
But take heart for even if they have the churches, we have the Faith.
In today’s Gospel reading, priests
and Levites came from Jerusalem to see John the Baptist. This is an indication
of the high esteem in which they held John. On other occasions they sent their emissaries
to question Jesus, because He was the Son of a lowly carpenter. But John was
one of their own, a member of the priestly cast as was his father, Zacharias, who
was a prince among the priests of the Old Testament. St. John knew their
doctrines and their hypocrisies in twisting the Law of Moses to suit their own
financial welfare. They asked John if he was the Christ. John told them, “I am
not the Christ.” They asked John if we was Elias. John clearly said, “I am
not.” They then asked him, “Who are thou . . .” John answered, “I am the voice
of one crying in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the
prophet Isaias.” (Isaias 40: 3) John fulfilled the
prophecy of Isaias when he said this.
There is a seeming contradiction in
Scriptures about who John the Baptist was. He said clearly that he is not
Elias, but Jesus said in Matthew 17: 10-13: “And his disciples
asked him, saying, why then do the scribes say that Elias must come first? But
he answering, said to them: Elias indeed shall come and restore all things. But
I say to you, that Elias has already come, and they knew him not . . . Then the
disciples understood, that he had spoken to them of John the Baptist.” Also at Matthew 11: 14, Jesus says, “And if you will receive it, [John]
is Elias who is to come.” How can it be that John says he is not Elias while
the Son of God says he is?
We can look at Luke 1: 17 to understand. Here the Angel, the messenger of
God, tells Zachary, “And he [John the Baptist] shall go before him in the
spirit and power of Elias.” So John came not as Elias in person, but in the
spirit and power of Elias. This spirit and power of Elias is the Holy Ghost,
Who was in both Elias and John. What Elias will be to the Second Coming of the
Lord, John was to His first coming. John: “to prepare unto the Lord a perfect
people,” and “to make straight the way of the Lord.” Elias: “to restore all
things.”
St. Augustine asks who will believe
this? And he answers: those who imitate the humility of John and who understand
the awesome majesty of the Lord. We see John’s
humility. He could have said, “I am the Christ,” and the priests and Levites were
ready to believe him. But he humbled himself before God and said, “I am not the
Christ.” We can imitate John’s humility by abandoning our personal opinions
about what is truth. I am sure Pontius Pilate was aware of the many conflicting
schools of philosophical and religious thought in the Jerusalem of his day. We
know that he did not know which school was correct or true because he mocked the
very idea of truth when he said to our Lord, “What is truth.” Pilate did not
receive the grace to recognize Truth, even when He was standing right in front
of him. Compare Pilate to St. Thomas, who did recognize Truth when He stood in
front of him, and Thomas in humility said, “My Lord and my God.”
We can, like Sts. John and Thomas, acknowledge
that our opinions and the opinions of false religious teachers are not
important. Rather, we can acknowledge that what is important is what Christ’s
Faith teaches us. We can acknowledge that we are not our own little church, we
are not our own little philosophical empire, rather, we are either members of or
we are invited to become members of the Mystical Body of Christ, which is His Catholic
Church. We, along with our opinions, shall pass away, but His Word, which is
found in His Church, shall not pass away. (Matthew
24: 35)
In a passage following last week’s
Gospel reading Christ says, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now,
the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away.” (Matthew 11: 12) How can someone commit violence against Heaven?
The violence that our Lord is talking about is the violence against ourselves.
Fast and abstinence is a violence against ourselves. Jesus is telling us to do
what John the Baptist did in order to gain the Kingdom of Heaven. Pope St. Leo
the Great says that fasting is the food of virtue, because from abstinence
comes chaste thoughts, honorable decisions and helpful advice. By voluntarily
suffering through fasting, the sting of the flesh is lessened, that is, we
think less of our bodies while our souls become strong in virtue
This coming week is Ember Week, a
time of fasting and abstinence. When you fast you are denying yourself a
pleasure and you will feel uncomfortable. That is called mortification of the
body. When you offer that uncomfortable feeling to God you will be rewarded
with the grace of God that will bring you closer to Him. It will help you stand
fast against the devil and will defeat the sinful vices which lead you away
from Heaven.
For those aged 18 to 59, inclusive, Ember Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday are days
of fast (one full meal, two smaller meals, liquids only between meals) and, for
all aged 7 or over, partial abstinence from meat (meat, meat gravy, or meat
soup at the main meal only) on Ember Wednesday and Saturday; total abstinence from
meat on Ember Friday, as on all Fridays of the year.
Make the Ember Days even more
meaningful by depriving yourself of little luxuries like desert and by praying
for Catholic priests, who are in great need of your fasting and prayers.
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