December 30, 2024

Sunday 15 December 2024

3th Advent Sunday – Year B

Mass for the sending of the pilgrimage of relics to Rome

Homily by Father Emmanuel Schwab

1st reading: Zephaniah 3,14-18a

Song: Isaiah 12,2-3,4bcde,5-6

2th reading: Philippians 4,4-7 Gospel: Luke 3,10-18

Gospel: Luke 3,10:18-XNUMX

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The first two readings of this Sunday focus our attention on joy, but the Gospel poses a prerequisite. The figure of Saint John the Baptist is an essential figure: in his prologue, John the Evangelist tells us the importance of his ministry which is like a key to faith in Jesus. What is the preaching of John reported by Saint Luke? A preaching that calls us to live in justice. The readings of yesterday's Mass Saturday spoke to us of the prophet Elijah who comes to "put everything back in its place". John the Baptist, who fulfills this figure of Elijah, Jesus tells us, calls us to live in justice, to act with justice. We are given some examples: “He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.” To the tax collectors who were tempted to ask for much more than what they were supposed to give to the authorities, John said: “Do not demand anything more than what is set for you” ; to soldiers who may be tempted by violence, by appropriating the property of those they have violated, he says: “Do violence to no one, accuse no one falsely; and be content with your pay.”. We could continue this ministry of John today, in many situations. What the Church calls the considerate grace, namely, the way in which God loves every man so that every man can do what is right, this prevenient grace continues to act in our lives. What concern do we have to be right in all that we do? It is a prerequisite to our welcoming of the Savior and a prerequisite to joy. The prophet Zephaniah invites the people of Israel to burst into applauseor a to rejoice, à jump for joy. Why? Because the Lord makes himself present: “The King of Israel, the Lord, is in you. You no longer have to fear misfortune.”. And Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, tells us: “Rejoice in the Lord, I say to you again: rejoice.” The translation “Rejoice” risks making us think that it is a lasting state, but Paul uses the imperative: rejoice! (Χαίρετε). It is an act. It is about very voluntarily placing our joy in the Lord. “Rejoice in the Lord.” It is therefore a question of learning from the Lord to rejoice…

And what can we be happy about?

Let us rejoice first of all in the love that God has for every man, and therefore in the love that God has for ourselves, let us rejoice in the gift of Jesus, in the very person of the Word made flesh who is given to us as Savior and who, by his death and resurrection, by his living word and by the sacraments of the Church, never ceases to be present in our lives. We know well that we are never alone again: the Lord Jesus is always there. He is theEmmanuel, God with us.

But Saint Therese of the Child Jesus is also for us a novice mistress about joy. We must spend a lot of time with her and take a lot of time to let ourselves be taught by her about joy, because the joy she knows appears to us at first as very paradoxical since she finds her joy in suffering. But if she finds her joy in suffering, it is first because she finds her joy in God. She finds her joy in Jesus. She finds her joy in this beautiful Heaven, the Homeland towards which she is advancing. On her trip to Rome in 1887, they went from hotel to hotel — it is a long train journey; the way there, then the way back — she says:

During the whole course of our journey [that of Rome], we were lodged in princely hotels, never had I been surrounded by so much luxury […] Ah!! I felt it well, Joy is not found in the objects that surround us, it is found in the innermost part of the soul., one can possess it just as well in a prison as in a palace… (Ms A 65r)

This joy, Thérèse finds it in the way God acts, she finds it in the mercy of God. And in this magnificent page, towards the end of manuscript A where she contemplates the mercy of God, she says: but for me, it is something that has been given to me and it is through this mercy that I contemplate all the aspects of God's love, all the aspects of God and she says that "his justice itself appears to me covered with mercy". And she has this very beautiful sentence:

What sweet joy to think that the Good Lord is Just, that is to say that He takes into account our weaknesses, that He knows perfectly the fragility of our nature. What then should I be afraid of? (Ms A 83v)

This is where Thérèse finds her joy, this intimate joy of the soul: in the contemplation of the goodness of God, of the mercy of God. Thérèse lets herself be dazzled by the greatness and the goodness of God, to such an extent that she understands that she herself is very small. And she even understands that to welcome this mercy of God, to welcome this joy that comes from God, she must remain small and become more and more so.

Thus we can read in her: I understood what true glory was. He whose kingdom is not of this world showed me that true wisdom consists in “willing to be ignored and counted for nothing – To find one's joy in self-contempt”… (Ms A 71r)

And Thérèse, in fact, will gradually stop caring about what people think of her, and will no longer find in compliments something that nourishes her… what nourishes her more and more is to do the will of God, to do what pleases God. And she says, speaking of herself in the 3th person :

All creatures can lean towards her, admire her, overwhelm her with their praise, I don't know why but this cannot add a single drop of false joy to the true joy she savors in her heart, seeing herself what she is in the eyes of the Good Lord: a poor little nothingness, nothing more… (Ms C 2r)

And a little later, she will express this:

Even if I had accomplished all the works of St. Paul, I would still consider myself a “useless servant” but This is precisely what makes me happy, because having nothing, I will receive everything from the good Lord. (CJ June 23)

May we allow ourselves to be taught by Saint Therese, to learn to truly place our joy in the Lord, to rejoice in the Lord, that is, to rejoice in the greatness of God, to rejoice in the fact that God wants to give us everything. But to be able to receive everything that God wants to give us, we must be impoverished in ourselves, we must be pure availability to let ourselves be filled.

I conclude by quoting some verses from poem 45 entitled “My Joy”:

There are souls on earth

Who search in vain for happiness

But for me, it's quite the opposite.

Joy is in my heart

This joy is not fleeting

I own it without return

Like a spring rose

She smiles at me every day. […]

My joy is to love suffering,

I smile while shedding tears […]

My joy is to remain in the shadows

To hide myself, to lower myself.

My joy is the Holy Will

From Jesus my only love […]

My joy is to remain small

Also when I fall on the way

I can get up quickly

And Jesus takes me by the hand […]

My joy is to fight constantly

In order to give birth to the chosen ones. […]

“What does death or life matter to me?

“Jesus, my joy is to love you!”

Amen

Father Emmanuel Schwab, Rector of the Shrine