“I WANT YOU TO BE HAPPY ALWAYS… ”

HOMILY FOR THE 3^RD SUNDAY OF ADVENT, YEAR C

Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

It is Gaudete (rejoice) Sunday. It is a day the Church calls on her sons and daughters to be happy and joyful. The very first sentence of the First Reading (Zephaniah 3:14-18) opens the show with its sort of declaration: shout for joy…rejoice with all your heart. We must not be left with the feeling that we have waited so long for the arrival of Christ to such an extent that boredom and sadness sets in. Of course, it is humanly understandable that there is the feeling of nervousness and slight fear when one plans to host a renowned person. It is this sort of feeling that we may be inclined to have at this point as regards the arrival of the great messiah. This is why it is necessary for us at this moment to convert immediately this likely feeling into a feeling of great joy and happiness, in the development of a good image of ourselves who have been found worthy and fit to host a Very Important Person (VIP), Christ. Thus, since we have been notified of this grandiose arrival, let us rise up and celebrate in joy.

The letter of St. Paul to Philippians has as its major feature this exhortation to be happy and be joyful always. Its perspective is in the sense of the coming of the Lord. So, the joy we meet in the Second Reading (Phil. 4:4-7) is in the sense of the nearness of the Lord’s coming. This joy with which our hearts should be filled bears the fruits of thanksgiving and prayer, and finally is composed and deepened in peace. A general view at this Joy Epistle (Philippians) reveals that Paul seems to have digressed so to speak after chapter 3:1 from the exhortation to rejoice. And so, what we meet from chapter 3:2 to chapter 4:3 would be a series of warning. Now, in chapter 4:4, we find Paul coming back in an abrupt manner to his main theme of joy. This time around, he repeated it, most probably for the sake of emphasis. However, this time around again, his style reveals that he wanted to strike the dagger point at the strictest meaning of the type of joy he has been proposing for the people; and that is the joy oriented towards Jesus, because the Lord is near. And to appreciate its richness, we must be left to ask ourselves a very important question: what is the substratum of this joy/happiness?

It is a joy founded on Christ. Paul did not just exhort the people to rejoice, but to do so ‘in the Lord’. Therefore, the phrase “in the Lord” ought not to be overlooked for a nice interpretation of the message. Whenever Paul speaks of the Lord, he speaks of Jesus, and whenever he addresses Christians in all of his letters, his style of writing remains Christo-centric. From his writings, it is clear that Paul makes Jesus and which He is, the centre of the faith. It was Paul who said: imitate me as I imitate Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 11:1). For Paul, Christ is the foundation of our lives. It is in Him that we live, and move, and have our being (cf. Acts. 17:28). This is the basis of the relationship of the Christian to Jesus. We are deeply connected to Jesus. All earthly attachments are but poor representations of the intimate, and indeed very mysterious union our souls are in Christ. Therefore, to have this union is a great assurance of joy. It is a very pure joy of self-effacement and forgetfulness. It is at this point can the christian say: I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me (cf. Gal. 2:20).

For those who keep the law, there is no law. When we live in this joy of Christ, we discover little by little how outgrown we have become over sin and selfishness. Then can we see ourselves as above those people, tax collectors, and soldiers who were seeking from John the Baptist directives on their ways of life in the Gospel (Luke 3:10-18). In joy, we shall find ourselves giving out our spare tunics, not collecting bribes, and not intimidating or extorting people as John admonished them. We shall find out that it is in being joyful in Christ that the material things we glory in are indeed worthless. See how the people in that Gospel story became filled up with expectations. This is because they felt the presence of the messiah among them. They even started wondering whether John was the Christ. It is in the joy of Christ the messiah that an authentic feeling of expectancy is enhanced. With this, our faith is preserved. Yes, sing and shout for joy for great in your midst is the holy one of Israel (cf. Is. 12:6).

Another important aspect of this joy is that it must be constant in us. And Paul added, rejoice in the Lord always. That word signifies that we must continue to rejoice in and out of season. This joy must be allowed to be felt by everyone around us. It does not pay in being gloomy or melancholic as a Christian. In fact, a gloomy Christian gives a false impression of his/her faith as a sort of prison. The brightness of our faces and our cheerfulness speak of the calmness of our hearts of joy in Christ. This cheerfulness and happy faces are very important for the attraction of others to Jesus. No one enjoys a place of mourning more than a place of joy. Let us make our Church a place of joy and cheerfulness where any one who comes newly would desire to come again. Let us make our Church a place where spare tunics are shared, justice is maintained, equity and equality are promoted. Let us not shy away from this life of joy. All God wants of us during this moment is to allow Him be the God of joy who comes into your life to delete all sadness. We need only to pray Him to come to the wintery branches where our lives bear no fruits and our energy sapped by the shortness of the day. Come, Lord Jesus. Remember, I want you to be happy always as I wish you a happy new week. God bless you.