BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (# 3)
Third Sunday of Advent, Year C – December 14, 2003
BIBLE READINGS
Zep 3:14-18a // Phil 4:4-7 // Lk 3:10-18
The horrible avalanche of garbage that killed many scavengers dwelling in the city dump in Payatas, Manila Metropolis in the Philippines, and the stinking trash that littered and polluted our once beautiful land provoked sensitive persons to ask: “What should we do?” One day I saw Sr. Mary Carmela, who had attended an ecological seminar organized for our Antipolo Diocese, washing messy plastic bags and putting them on the clothesline to dry. She explained that the plastic bags would be brought to the Augustinian Recollect Fathers where they would be picked up by a recycling factory. She showed me also a long list of recyclable materials and the address of the factories that recycle them in the Metro Manila area. That day was one of conversion for me! From then on I knew that I would be able to do something concretely useful for God’s beloved creation that has been so violently abused by man’s greed and senselessness. I have dedicated myself to the work of “zero waste”, the promotion of a life of simplicity and a campaign against wastefulness. In caring for the earth, I became more connected with the Church of the poor and felt the joyful advent of God’s justice and peace in my heart.
The question “What should we do?” is very much related to the Advent mantra “Adveniat regnum tuum” (“Thy kingdom come!”). The joy of Advent is not passivity. In order to bring about the advent of God’s kingdom on earth, the people of messianic expectation must ask the question “What should we do?” as the crowds, tax collectors and soldiers asked John the Baptist. The Baptist’s response emphasized a practical spirituality rather than a high mysticism. His reply to the expectant crowds was: “Whoever has two cloaks should share with the person who has none. And whoever has food should do likewise” (Lk 3:11). John the Baptist did not prescribe ritual sacrifice or oblige ascetical practices but challenged them to a more radical response: a selfless concern for the disadvantaged poor. Moreover, he demanded just and responsible behavior from the tax collectors and soldiers. Indeed, as salvation is for all classes of people, so the practice of justice and charity is a moral imperative in every walk of life.
Our Advent celebration for the messianic coming involves a joyful hope that manifests itself in acts of peace and justice, and care for the earth. In response to John the Baptist’s exhortation “Prepare the way of the Lord”, we strive to make alive and real the kingdom of God’s justice and peace in the “here and now”. Our charity for our less fortunate brothers and sisters and our active concern for God’s beloved creation are a necessary preparation for the coming of the Messiah, the servant of justice and the Lord of creation. John the Baptist, the precursor of the Messiah, preached the good news of the Savior’s imminent coming to the people who were on tiptoe in expectation: “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (Lk 3:16-17). Indeed, the servant of justice, anointed by the Spirit to bring good news to the poor, came in time and space and continues to come to earth to bring forth justice and salvation.
In this grace-filled season of the Church’s preparation for the Lord’s definitive Advent in the end time, let us keep in mind the following words of James Empereur and Christopher Kiesling: “As we look forward to the new heavens and new earth and the promised justice of God, we are simultaneously recalling the beginnings of the motive for our expectation: the incarnation of God’s Son in Jesus … There is a large gap between the world in which we live and the new heavens and new earth which we expect. The social arrangements in which we live fall short of the justice with which God will wrap Jerusalem. We cannot rest with the status quo in the world. There is always room for improvement of the social, economic, and political orders toward justice for all” (cf. The Liturgy That Does Justice, Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1990, p. 75-76).
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: Lord Jesus,
as we prepare for your definitive coming in the end time
and as we welcome your daily advent in our lives,
teach us “what we should do”
so that we may truly be a people of the new covenant
and messengers of hope to the poor and the oppressed.
Help us to care for the earth
for all creation comes from it.
The earth forms the basic raw material for humankind
and the substance for the incarnation of God’s Son.
In our care for the earth
and in deeds of compassion and mercy,
may we be a “sacrament”
of the final Advent of your Kingdom of truth and life;
the Kingdom of sanctity and grace;
the Kingdom of justice, love and peace,
where you live and reign forever and ever.
Assembly: Amen.
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“The crowds asked John the Baptist, ‘What should we do?’ … Now the people were filled with expectation.” (Lk 3:10, 15)
Prepared by: Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang, PDDM