Consolation, hope and joy

This is my homily for today, the 3rd Sunday of Advent, Cycle A.  The readings are here.

This Third Sunday of Advent is known as Gaudete Sunday, which means the Sunday to Rejoice.  We’re called to be filled with joy on this day.  But when life turns against us, it can be hard to find a reason to rejoice.  Just speaking for myself, I’m not able to switch joy on and off like a light switch.  Sometimes I have to dig down really deeply to find it, and sometimes I’m not able to find it at all.  In those situations, having a friend who is willing to stand by us, and offer us words of consolation and hope, can make all the difference.  Such friends are like flowers that bloom in a desert.

Consider John the Baptist in the Gospel reading for today: behind bars, and seemingly also imprisoned in doubt and despair.  Jerusalem and all of Judea formerly had come to the desert to hear God speak through him.  To them his words had been like flowers blooming in a barren place, like a stream of water running through a drought-stricken land, like a loaf of hot, fresh bread set before a starving person.   God’s word, spoken through John, was food for hungry people, and the people were voracious for it. 

But now, having spoken out fearlessly against the authorities, John was suffering the fate of those who challenge and upset the powers that be.  He was in jail.  And we can be pretty sure that he was suffering – that he was filled with anguish and dread of what was to come for him, and perhaps filled with doubt and even regret for what had led him to this moment.  The shoe was on the other foot: he was now the one in need of hope and consolation.

A person in prison is apt to do what we see John doing in today’s Gospel passage: examining his life, weighing his previous words and actions, questioning the choices that led him to this dire predicament.

And so there is something poignant in the question he asks his disciples to pose to Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?”  It’s as much as to say, “Did I devote my life to the wrong messiah?  Did I just bet my house, my farm and my life savings on the wrong horse?”  John, formerly so confident and fearless, who did not hesitate to call the Pharisees and Sadducees a brood of vipers (remember that from last week?), now was experiencing a moment of vulnerability and doubt.  The one whose words had brought hope and consolation to so many, now was in need of hope and consolation himself.

We should understand Jesus’s response to John’s disciples to be those very things John so needed, words of consolation and hope.  We see Jesus here being John’s friend in need.  “The blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.”  In other words: if only we can lift our eyes from gazing inward in despair, and look about us, signs and wonders of God’s presence are among us everywhere.  They may not always be easy to discern, but they are there, if we can look about us.  Words of encouragement can heal our despair.  When our sight is restored by those words, we can see those signs and wonders.  When our ears are unstopped by words of hope, we can hear God’s lifegiving word.  When words of consolation restore strength to our limbs, we can work to change our difficult situation.

Part of my own ministry is to offer consolation and hope.  In our Outreach ministry, I and many other volunteers from our parish provide food to those who are hungry in our local community, and financial assistance to those who are poor.  Those very acts of providing food to hungry people and money to those in need are themselves acts of encouragement and hope.  And when we consider that all of that food and money comes from donations from you, this ministry constitutes the entire St. Edna faith community building up God’s kingdom.  

The food and the money are important, but at least as important are whatever words of hope and consolation we can offer those who are in dire financial straits, or who are experiencing homelessness.  Many of our clients become trapped in a vicious cycle of despair which prevents them from doing anything to change their situation.  Our parishioner volunteers in Outreach have a real gift for talking, and listening, to our Outreach clients.  We let our clients know that loves them, and if they are willing to make positive changes in their lives, we will help them.  This is how God’s kingdom is built.  I really believe that our Outreach ministers are gardeners, making flowers bloom in the desert of despair, and watering the parched earth of poverty with the water of solidarity and love.

There are people around us who are thirsting for words of consolation and hope.  Probably there are people among us right here today who are suffering, who are desperate.  People with serious illnesses.  People whose marriages are falling apart.  Parents struggling with difficult children.  Widows and widowers grieving the loss of their spouses.  Teens dealing with anxiety and depression. These situations, and others, can feel like prison.  People can feel that they are locked up in their difficult situations, with the walls closing in, and no way out.

We are so fortunate at St. Edna to have ministries that offer help to struggling, suffering, desperate people.  I’ve already mentioned Outreach.  Another one, and one of the best and simplest to do, is the Ministry of Care.  These volunteers bring communion to our parishioners who are in hospitals and nursing homes, or who are homebound.  Some lead communion services, too.  Bringing communion to people is not very difficult.  Any of us could do it.  But the best ministers don’t simply offer communion: they also listen to the people they’re visiting and offer them words of kindness and encouragement.   I believe that our Ministry of Care is building up God’s kingdom, one visit at a time.  They are gardeners, making flowers bloom in deserts of pain and loneliness.    

Of course, it is not necessary to join a ministry to offer words of encouragement and consolation.  Chances are good that we know one or more people who are suffering, who are in a difficult predicament.  We shouldn’t ignore them or drop them from our lives.  This is the time when they need us the most.  It’s when we’re in a desperate fix that we find out which friends are friends indeed.  And so we should make a point of reaching out to them.  We should make it clear to them that we love them.  And we can help them to understand that God loves them, too, and God will never abandon them.  If we can find the right words to say those things, then we will be planting flowers in the desert of someone’s life, and watering those flowers with God’s love.  Then God’s love will rejoice and bloom, and today truly will be Gaudete Sunday, a day to rejoice.