This being Advent of Year B of the Sunday reading cycle, this former musicologist has only one specific recommendation for Advent \u2014 \u201cThis is the record of John\u201d by Orlando Gibbons. One of the best of the English Renaissance composers, Gibbons sets this Sunday\u2019s reading beautifully, writing a motet that elevates the text in a way that makes everything come into a new light. What caught my ear this year was the simplicity of St. John the Baptist\u2019s responses. He doesn\u2019t mince words, and he doesn\u2019t answer more than the Pharisees ask. He simply responds: \u201cI am not the Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How often do we make ourselves the Christ! We are so intent on being our own salvation, of making do by ourselves, of trusting in our own power to muscle through everything. We grit our teeth and bear it, we lose sleep and sanity having to do everything, to look the right way, to pretend that we\u2019re more powerful, prestigious or capable than we really are. No, friends \u2014 we cannot save ourselves. Or perhaps, if we don\u2019t try to usurp Jesus\u2019 place, we think ourselves Elijah or Isaiah, or someone important, or someone who God needs to use every ounce of our strength to prove that we\u2019re proper religious folk, just as the Pharisees did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We forget that Isaiah expressly said that this is good news for the poor, that it is the poor who will receive this news the best and rejoice. Are we willing to realize our poverty and humility and live from this place? Are we willing to say like St. John the Baptist: \u201cI am not the Christ\u201d? Are we willing to let go of that to which we have no right to lay claim, to having it all together, of being respectable and postcard-perfect, especially in this season of high social pressure? God alone can bring peace and joy and hope into our hearts \u2014 we must not try to do it ourselves, but instead to strip ourselves of everything that hinders us from welcoming Jesus into our hearts, as we prepare to greet him again this Christmas, a baby who is all love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dear friends, the stable door is narrow and its lintel is low, and all of us with our bloated and exaggerated senses of self are inclined to crack our heads on the lintel and stagger away to nurse our headaches, or worse yet, get stuck in its jambs and prevent anyone else from coming in. No, indeed, we must be humble and honest, like St. John the Baptist: \u201c\u2018I am not the Christ\u2019 \u2014 but you, my Jesus \u2014 you are! Here am I, just as I am, here to worship and adore you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Solomon Ip<\/strong> \u2013 St. Joseph Seminary, Edmonton, Alberta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fot. Heidi Fin\/Unsplash.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 3rd Sunday of Advent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-strona-glowna-najnowsze","category-strona-glowna-slider"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n