THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT - The Lord Keeps Coming

Where God is, there is beauty. We experience the beaming of his beauty in the flowering spring and in flowing rivers, on the fruitful plain and on the mountain heights, when the morning shines and when the birds sing. Where God is, there is joy. We experience it in the joy of love and hope, in the joy of a peaceful conscience and of a grateful heart, in the joy of trustful soul and of glowing hope. We experience it even when “the plants and trees rejoice and bloom with joyful song” (Is35:1,2). Where God is “sorrows and mourning’s flee” (Is35;10), for he heals the broken bodies and bruised hearts with an overflow of the bright ocean of love. Just as torches burn most brightly when swung to and fro, so the healing presence of God brings out the rich qualities of a person under the cold, merciless wind of suffering.

Where God is, the redemptive works of his son Jesus continue. They were so profound and earth-shattering that they continue to vibrate even today throughout the world, freeing men and women from bondage and darkness. However, the mighty presence of God in the world does not yet rule out the naughty presence of suffering. As long as we carry around our mortal bodies wounded by sin and until the Lord comes at the end of time, we have to accept suffering willingly and even joyfully. We must permit no distress to break our friendship with God.

A boy and girl are playing on the beach building together sandcastles, unaware of the approaching sea waves. Eventually the tide comes and sweeps away their castle. You know what they will do. They will have a hearty laugh and precede holding hands to another spot on the beach to build together castles again. Likewise, we may build castles real and unreal but God may wipe them out; at times we may feel that the landscape of our lives is turned into a desert but even then we must hold on to God’s hands and wait patiently for his coming, as “the farmer awaits the precious yield of his soil”(Jas 5:7), “without murmuring or grumbling against one another”(v.9). Patience is not a beggar’s virtue but the passion of the great hearts.

The heart of a Christian must be great. If it is, the Christian will not only bear their own suffering willingly but also reach out to those who suffer, to lift their sorrows. Is it possible to list the ills of the present world that cry for help? Our dear world itself is sick for want of elementals: pure air, pure water and pure earth. For millions, life is like an onion which one peels crying. Besides, it is our presence with those who suffer which makes us authentic Christians. Christ himself pointed out his ministry to the blind, lame, deaf and poor for proof of his authenticity as Messiah (Mt11:4). Hence a Christian heart has to go out, offering help to those who are in distress; after all, our helping hand is just at the end of our right arm. It does not matter if our charities are small or poor. Little things are great to little people, and great engines turn on small bearings. Every small act of kindness extended to the afflicted, every act of charity we do to get justice for the poor, bread for the hungry and healing to the distressed does bring God’s liberating presence one step closer.

It is our unshakeable belief that the presence of God in all its splendor will break out the final coming of Christ, when “all the ransomed will enter Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy” (Is35:1). But before that day, Christ wants to keep coming to us here and now. Why? To open our eyes, if we are blind ,to see the glory of God’s  presence in his  creation and to praise, and to see the misery of millions in our world and reach out; to open our ears, if we are deaf, to hear God’s word and obey, and to hear the cry of the poor and help; to straighten our hands and knees, if they are feeble and weak, to meet our commitments to God and neighbor; to release our tongues, if we are dumb, to speak for justice and truth. Hence we must daily wait, especially during this Advent, for the Lord’s visits. But all his visits will not be labeled; some of them come in disguise. Therefore let us always keep awake for the Lord’s visit. The opportunity to meet him does not wake up people who are asleep.            Amen