Advent is a journey of rediscovery: true joy is only through service and love, building relationships like Christ
Third Sunday of Advent – December 14, 2025
Have you ever been lost? Do you remember the feeling when you were guided back to the right path or you went searching and found the right path? Was it a feeling of relief? And then, feeling relieved, you once more felt hopeful/ happy/ joyful. You had not yet reached the destination, but knowing you were on the right path was enough.
Advent is a bit like that. And the readings today help us see the pattern of Jesus Christ: John, in prison, sent his disciples to check out Jesus and ask if he was the one? Jesus did not use words to convince John but only pointed to his actions: actions that linked Jesus back to the prophecy of Isaiah, which we heard in the First Reading.
Leo Tolstoy once told the story of a cobbler (shoe maker) and his Guest. Once upon a time, in a little Russian village, there lived a kind old cobbler named Martin, a devout man who read the Bible daily and prayed to see Jesus in person one Christmas Eve. That night, after tidying his small shop, he sat by the window, hoping for his wish to come true. He dozed off, and in a dream, he heard a voice say, “Martin, look out into the street tomorrow. I will pass by.”
The next morning, filled with excitement, Martin watched the street with bated breath. The day was cold and people hurried by, bundled against the wind. First, Martin saw the old street sweeper, Stepanich, shivering as he worked. Remembering the warmth of his shop, Martin called him in, offered hot tea and food, and warmed his hands by the stove. Later, he saw a young mother with a crying, poorly dressed baby. He invited her in, too, gave warm clothes for the child, and shared what little food he had. As dusk fell, a group of children gathered to look at a Christmas tree in a nearby window. Martin gave them apples and allowed them to warm up.
All day Martin watched and waited, but the special guest from his dream never appeared. Disappointed, he began to close his shop for the night. “He said he would come,” Martin murmured, “but he didn’t.” Suddenly, his room filled with a warm light, and the faces of the people he had helped that day appeared in the light: Stepanich, the young mother, and the children. Then he heard the gentle voice from his dream once more: “I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you welcomed me… For whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
Martin finally understood. His dream had come true, just not in the way he expected. He had welcomed Jesus into his heart by welcoming others in need, finding true joy in selfless giving.
For those of us who are not really happy, in a dead-spot in life, who may be wondering what is the meaning of life? … Advent is a time to start looking differently at what we see. Perhaps we need to be more inquisitive like John the Baptist.
Advent is a time to reflect on where we’ve been looking and what we’ve been looking at: because those things really have a great impact on our subconscious. Our society in recent years has encouraged us to buy material “things” to make us happy. But Christmas reminds us that relationships make us truly happy.
We all kind of know that, but, materialism has subtly encouraged many people to expect relationships to automatically give us happiness. God designed us differently: when Jesus came among us it was as a baby who needs to be nurtured and cared for.
Like myself, do you ever wonder why the pink candle symbolises joy? There’s the English expression: he/she’s is in the pink! It means they are happy and healthy. But also, as the saying goes, we are all pink on the inside. Somehow, joy comes when we look deeper than the exterior. To look deeper means to enter into the reality of another person’s life.
Tolstoy’s story above reminds us how reaching out to care for others becomes the light of joy in the cobbler’s life. As we empower others, we find deep meaning, purpose and joy in life. When we focus on pleasuring ourselves, we eventually feel a kind of emptiness and ‘deadness’.
It seems that every man and his dog have a smart phone these days. But, at the same time, so many people are unhappy. Youth depression is increasing. Why? Perhaps because the smartphone does not help us enter deeply into the reality of others: it only connects us to the outside of people: often the false persona that we describe on our profile(s).
But real joy comes when we enter into the reality of others: to see the need and respond with care/ love. At the same time, the vulnerable child of Jesus also invites us to be vulnerable in the eyes of those close to us, so they may also know the joy of caring/ loving ourselves.
Here in Kenya, one of the Nairobi Oblate youth members, distributing food at Mathare Slums, one day sent me a message: “yesterday I thought I was poor. Today I realised I am not poor.”
Advent is joyful because it leads us onto a path, or back to the path, where our actions of love and service build a local community that also loves and serves ‘me’.
By Gerard Conlan, OMI
