To avoid the eternal fire of loneliness / fear … make friends by sharing, safeguarding & protecting our neighbours

Back

To avoid the eternal fire of loneliness / fear … make friends by sharing, safeguarding & protecting our neighbours

Third Sunday of Advent – December 15, 2024

We are presented with a picture, in the first reading, of people being promised happiness. And St Paul is praying for us to be always happy.  But, are you happy?
Sometimes these readings might make us think, “why is God usually talking about happiness when I am struggling here to make everything work and balance the budget?”

Even for the Israelites, the first people to hear the prophet Isaiah, they were not in a good “space”.  These were the years after the great Exile finished and the Israelites came back to claim Jerusalem.  And for a time, they worked hard, regained something of a normal life.  But every few years, one of the neighbouring countries would come and overtake them and make them “slaves” or steal their goods, etc.

Now, Isaiah is aware of these issues, but still proclaims the prophecy of joy and happiness to come.  There is a lesson in this: when we keep focusing on the sadness and stress of our current situation, then we tend to lose hope for a better tomorrow.  The prophecy of Isaiah reminds us to always take time to recognise the joy that comes to us in the midst of our difficulties.

Thankfully, Luke’s Gospel reminds us of the wisdom of Jesus Christ to help us, not only, to find happiness, but to live in such a way that we lose it less often!
Luke reminds us of three ways Christ taught us to bring joy (bring God) into our lives:

1) do not be selfish: share with those in need;
2) do not cheat people out of their property/ money: help them to safeguard what they have;
3) do not misuse your physical power: but use our power to protect others.

Why are these three ways of acting so important?  Even when we are under pressure, or don’t have much money/ food, they are important.

  • Sharing what we have first of all stops people around us becoming desperate: in the wealthier suburbs, people usually spend a lot of money on security to “protect” themselves. When we share with those in need, we create friendship, and people appreciate/ protect us.  It’s true, some people can misuse our generosity and cheat us by being lazy, etc.
    But, many more will come to our aid in the future when all of us will have challenges.
  • Short term gain, by cheating others in material things, often forces people into poverty: we see this in poorer countries where corruption is widespread. And, sadly, this leads to less security, more violence and fear: which even the people who cheat will suffer from.
  • Short or long term gain through misuse of our power will also bring a lot of sadness in the future. In recent years we have seen a lot of powerful people get charged with abuse; and even our Church has suffered because of the misuse of power.  Many political regimes are now crumbling because of corruption: and the whole country suffers.

On a smaller scale, families also fall apart and abusers are pushed out to suffer alone and, often, in humiliating circumstances such as prison or living on the streets.

In the second half of the Gospel, Luke reveals two more points which follow on from the “three ways” above: to ensure we hang on to happiness: John the Baptist pointed away from himself to Christ.  When we bring the focus too much on ourselves (= selfishness), we develop two problems: one, we think we are more important than others: leading to rejection by others; and, two, we make ourselves dependent on the praise of other people: we lose our freedom!

And these two patterns of behaviour/ response create the fire that Jesus warns us about: it is not a physical fire that will burn us, but the fires of loneliness and slavery.

In Kenya, it’s sad to hear how some people will misuse their power by making a job conditional: eg. I will give you the job offer if you give me money each month for one year.  Or politicians being paid to vote for laws that will hurt the poorer people.

Let us ask ourselves today: What kind of a country do I want?  What kind of a local community do I want?  We have a clear choice as we head closer to Christmas: do we think we will magically find happiness?  It only lasts when we become the presence of Christ for others.

By sharing the little we have, others are encouraged to be generous and our cup over-floweth; when we help safeguard the material possessions of others, we build friendships; when we use our strength to protect the lives of others, we increase our own security.

Whatever difficulties we are suffering today, they will become even WORSE unless we build peace, increase security and make friends by sharing with those we meet.
Let’s appreciate what we have, and find joy in protecting our neighbours, and all will be well.

By Gerard Conlan, OMI