Third Sunday of Advent 'C'

Sunday December 17, 2006

Boisterous for the Lord or ‘Yeah God!’

Children tend to be boisterous when they are excited about something special. They welcome any and every opportunity to act out their joy and exercise their vocal chords on impulse with very little provocation. I can still hear my mother’s careful but clear admonition, “Lower your voice; there’s no need to be boisterous!” It may not have been ‘her’ need but it sure was our will!

At the conclusion of some youth retreats such as ‘Antioch’ or ‘Search’ it is not unusual for the enthusiastic teens to shout “Yeah God!” in tones that rival a pep rally.

But children and teens are not the only people who shout for joy in response to good news or happy times. NFL playoffs and Super Bowl Sundays are guaranteed to evoke a resilient response from adults that can match or surpass any schoolyard chorus from the mouths of children. I’ve never been to a live Super Bowl but the memory of sitting in the Giant’s stadium at the fifty-line marker for the Giants and Eagles game is as good as it gets.

Last evening, a woman approached me after Mass to tell me that nothing can match the ‘screams’ at a Notre Dame game. A high school classmate and friend, graduate of Notre Dame followed right behind her to remind me of the same.

In any event, football playoffs and sports victories at Notre Dame or the Meadowlands are not the only events that evoke a boisterous reaction.

I have vivid memories of the excitement that greeted the end of the World War II in 1946 in the center of Morristown. As Church bells rang out, cars circled the ‘Morristown Green,’ horns-a-blasting while people shouted from the top of their lungs and even from roof-tops: “The War is over! Our boys are coming home!” People threw confetti or the next best thing like streams of bathroom tissue from atop the Park Square Building. It was a boisterous din audible far into the back streets of town, a cacophony of noise that could easily have given birth to a modern symphony with its discordant sounds.

It is within this context that we might best appreciate and appropriate the words of Zephaniah in the first reading for today’s liturgy. Departing from his customary rancor Zephaniah, who was not known to be an affirming prophet, shouted words of jubilation at the imminent return, indeed, the immanent presence of Yahweh among the Israelites. It is ironic that less than a century later, the Israelites would be taken captive and sent into exile in Babylon. Nevertheless, Zephaniah’s message remained a buoyant reminder that God’s love is relentless and so is God’s desire to save:

“Shout for joy, O daughter Zion! Sing joyfully O Israel!
Be Glad and rejoice with all your heart,
The King of Israel, the Lord is in your midst.
He will remove all judgments pending against you….”

Saint Paul echoes the theme in his letter to the Philippians. Oddly enough he is writing these words while in prison or under house arrest. It is his faith that has set him free from the inside out. He too announces the imminent coming of the Lord, “Rejoice! I say it again, rejoice! The Lord is near…” But then he goes on to connect God’s presence with kindness and prayer: “Your kindness should be known to all…. Have no anxiety at all but in everything by prayer and petition, make your requests known to God…”

Although at this stage of his life, Paul was expecting the second coming, we no longer connect this passage to the impending or immediate arrival of Jesus but to his immanent presence in the community of believers.

Paul was not excluding the real presence of Jesus within the community. He states else, e.g., in his letter to the Galatians that he had arrived at a stage in his relationship with Christ at which he could declare openly, “I live now, no longer I, but Christ dwells fully within me.” His life in Christ overflowed into enthusiastic preaching with jubilant refrains such as this. Although Paul was convinced salvation was an unmerited gift and therefore did not depend on good works, he nevertheless taught that a true disciple of Christ could not help but do good for others. What lover does not want to do good for the beloved? In fact, Paul goes on to connect Jesus’ immanent presence with prayer and acts of kindness. Works of justice and charity are signs that Jesus is indeed alive in his body, the Church.

In his Gospel narrative, Luke pushes the connection between the coming of the Lord and good works making specific applications and recommendations.

“The crowds asked John the Baptist, ‘What should we do?’ He said to them, in reply, ‘Whoever has two cloaks should share with the person who has none. And whoever has food should do likewise.’”

To tax collectors he replied, “Don’t cheat!” And to soldiers he said, “Don’t accuse anyone falsely and do not extort or exploit!” In other words, “Bloom where you are planted!” Whoever you are and whatever your call and career, do what you are doing but do it generously and with integrity.

The clearest proof that Jesus has come, is coming and will come again is in the community of energetic believers who celebrate his presence at Eucharist in a ‘boisterous’ manner in song and even dance and who put flesh on his words through works of justice and charity.

So “whatever you do whether in speech or in action, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God through him.” (Paul to the Colossians).

“Yeah God!”

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