Breaking Open the Word - Third Sunday of Advent, Year A
Scripture Sharing, 3rd Sunday of Advent, Year A – Sunday, December 15th
This Sunday, the Church calls on all of her children to rejoice (Gaudete), for the coming of the Lord is near! We found many beautiful insights into the Scriptures Mother Church provides on this theme, beginning with the First Reading from Isaiah.
The image of the barren desert blooming “with abundant flowers” at the coming of the Lord struck several Sisters. One observed that, since God is Beauty Itself, His presence and salvation on earth necessarily calls forth extravagant beauty – Isaiah mentions not only flowers, but also song, dance, and healing. If this is the case, then, Sister wondered aloud, why are such manifestations of beauty so conspicuously absent in the Lord’s greatest act of salvation, the Passion? Sister saw this paradox as an indication of the great mystery of Redemption: God, pure Goodness and Beauty, voluntarily took on Himself all the evil and ugliness of our sins. By His sacrifice on the Cross, He has even made suffering and death a source of beauty and life! The Cross, once a sign of torture and horror, is now the most beautiful of all symbols, because Beauty Himself used it to show the unfathomable extent of His love.
Another Sister also saw this paradox as an indication of the unity of the Paschal Mystery. The Cross and the Resurrection are inextricably linked; the glory is already present in the Crucifixion, and the Wounds are still visible in the Risen One. To connect it directly to Isaiah, the Cross is the “desert” and the Resurrection produces the “abundant flowers!”
The desert in bloom was also seen by one Sister as an image of Our Lady’s mysteriously fruitful virginity. According to nature, we would not expect Mary to be a mother any more than we would expect to find flowers in a desert! But the presence of the Holy Spirit (so often described by Jesus as “living water”) brings about fruitfulness far beyond what we would expect by merely natural standards. In this the Blessed Mother is a model for all Christians, and especially for those vowed to virginity – of ourselves we are simply a “desert,” but if we are open to the slightest action of the Spirit, then we will give rise to beautiful “flowers” of grace. Of course, as St. James reminds us in the Second Reading, this growth will not happen overnight! We must remain patient in daily fidelity as we await the Lord’s mysterious work in our souls, our faith as certain as the farmer’s in the growth of these buried seeds.
Finally, we found much to ponder in today’s Gospel. One Sister shared how she is always deeply impressed by the humility of John the Baptist, of his great eagerness to direct people to Jesus and to “get out of the way” himself. Another noticed how in many ways John is like the prophets mentioned in the second reading – he endured great trials for his prophetic message, up to and including martyrdom, and remained steadfast even though he never saw the full realization of God’s plan. Then, of course, there is that mysterious line about “the least in the Kingdom of Heaven” being greater than the Baptist. A Sister suggested that this is a description of how Baptism so elevates Christian souls that they have a deeper relationship with God than even the greatest of prophets. All the righteous souls of old drew close to God, but we receive the unimaginable grace of actually entering the life of the Trinity by becoming mystical members of the Son!
The great feast of the Lord’s Nativity draws ever nearer . . . join us next week as we discuss the readings for the Fourth Sunday of Advent!