The prophet says, \u201cshout for joy\u201d
\n\u2013 and the world scoffs.
\nZephaniah sings \u201cbe glad and exult with all your heart\u201d
\n\u2013 and the nation calls it mockery.
\nSt. Paul commands \u201crejoice in the Lord always\u201d
\n\u2013 while a small town in Connecticut is shattered.
\nThe Apostle advises, \u201chave no anxiety\u201d
\n\u2013 and people of good will feels contempt rising within.
\nAnd the Baptist preaches good news,
\n\u2013 and we, what do we feel?<\/p>\n
I know that preaching is not about personal venting,
\nthat a homily is not an opportunity
\nfor emotional display or self-revelation by some clerical type,
\nnot an excuse for unleashing one\u2019s deepest feelings
\nof anger, or joy or despair.<\/p>\n
Yet in these dark days,
\nin the wake of such horrific violence,
\nas the details of the massacre of children and teachers,
\nof the innocent and the wise \u2013 of so many beloved,
\nflood the airwaves,
\nI fear that preaching without some revelation
\nof my shock \u2013 my repugnance,
\nmy broken-heartedness in view of these vile events,
\nwould be a sputtering of unusually empty words.<\/p>\n
Shock and total bafflement in the wake of such a heinous crime
\nsoon gave way, at least in me,
\nfirst to a deeply felt anger,
\nand then, if truth be told, to lingering despair \u2026.
\nA despair about the goodness of humanity.
\nA despair about the direction of our society.
\nAnd even despair about what religion,
\nChristianity,
\nRoman Catholicism,
\nand this liturgical season, this eucharist,
\nhave to offer in the face of such monstrous inhumanity.<\/p>\n
To my way of thinking, Advent is difficult enough.
\nI had labored for hours crafting a homily
\nthat tried to make sense out of this schizophrenic season
\nwith cards and carols about peace on earth
\nand good will toward all,
\nwhen crowds are trampling each other in the malls
\nand commerce dominates the season.<\/p>\n
I had devised a relatively clever response to the moment,
\neven about the figure of John the Baptist
\nas a bit of a bipolar fellow \u2013 a curmudgeon \u2013
\nreplete with snippets from another beloved curmudgeon,
\nAndy Rooney,
\nto illustrate how the grumpy can still be a source of good news.<\/p>\n
But this is no longer about curmudgeons
\nor the Grinch that stole Christmas.
\nThis is about the incarnation of evil,
\nif not in an individual \u2013 then certainly in his actions.<\/p>\n
And what can religion, or Christianity or Advent supply
\nin response to such unimaginable carnage,
\nespecially on a Sunday so filled with \u201cjoyous language\u201d?
\nOn a Sunday traditionally known as Guadete
\nor \u201crejoice\u201d Sunday?
\nOn a Sunday when we light the pink candle
\nintended to indicate a lightening of the season
\nas the birth of the Lord draws near,
\nbut now sadly symbolic
\nof the slaughter of the innocents
\nof the blood of the lambs
\nof the annihilation of first graders?<\/p>\n
Some have suggested that we leave that candle unlit
\nrepresenting the emptiness, darkness, joylessness
\nof this moment
\nand reflecting the extinguished lives of the innocent
\nfrom one small town.<\/p>\n
But we light that candle
\nwith its hues reminiscent of Valentine pink
\nas a tragic sign of shattered hearts.<\/p>\n
Maybe the whole of this evening is an unwelcome symbol
\nof the onset of darkness \u2026
\nas at sunset today the feasts of lights,
\nthe festival of Hanukah for our Jewish sisters and brothers,
\nis extinguished.<\/p>\n
Menorahs have grown dim \u2026
\nthe earth slips deeper into darkness,
\nand makes me wonder if the earth too feels despair?<\/p>\n
If society is mute before evil,
\nif religion is bankrupt before God,
\nwas Karl Marx right?
\nIs religion just a drug, a diversion, an opium of the people
\nsedating us in the face of the satanic,
\ninoculating us against the pandemic of violence
\nthat sweeps our globe,
\ndistracting us from doing justice
\nlike banning assault weapons,
\nor unmasking some free speech language
\nas a misguided strategy for personal liberty at any cost,
\nincluding the pulverization of the common good?<\/p>\n
While I admit I am tempted by a Marxian analysis
\nof religion as the food of fools,
\nthe pursuit of the duped
\nthe hobby of the hapless,
\nit is then that I am assaulted by the Baptist.<\/p>\n
No fool \u2013 no dupe \u2013 not hapless.
\nWhile the various gospels have John announcing good news,
\nhe was not some starry-eyed optimist
\nenamored of the paparazzi who followed him
\nor the sinners who heeded his tough words.<\/p>\n
John the Baptist is one of the great realists of the Gospel
\nwho early on understands that it is not all about him.
\nHe was not the Messiah.
\nHe was not the Anointed One.
\nHe is not God\u2019s most beloved.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, he understood what it must take
\nnot only to recognize the messiah,
\nbut to accept that most unconventional messiah into one\u2019s life:
\nit takes humility,
\nit takes justice,
\nit takes self-sacrifice,
\nand it even takes an ability for self-doubt
\nat first glance though quite-self assured in today\u2019s readings.<\/p>\n
John is also deeply in touch with his unworthiness,
\nhis second class status,
\nhis preparatory role in the unfolding of the messianic reign,
\nand in other Gospels, like that of Mark,
\nhe is even depicted in prison questioning if he did the right thing,
\nif Jesus really was the one,
\nor if he wagered his life on a fake, a charlatan, a wannabe.<\/p>\n
If John the Baptist was a religious patsy
\nhe was one in the mold of Gandhi or Martin Luther King,
\nwho knew that his preaching and bold demands
\nfor justice and cloak sharing,
\nfor modest and upright living,
\nand challenges to stop the extortion and greed,
\nand anything that would demote the common good,
\nwould cost him his life.<\/p>\n
Not a matter of \u201cif\u201d but \u201cwhen,\u201d
\nbut he wagered his life and lived not knowing the \u201cwhen,\u201d
\nand not even absolutely sure that Jesus
\nwas the reason for the season.<\/p>\n
And he did so because he was seized by the spirit of God,
\na spirit of unquenchable fire,
\nthat fueled a compelling belief
\nthat God\u2019s reign was possible,
\nthat a common good could flourish and justice thrive,
\nbut never, never without suffering;
\nnever obliterating all evil,
\nand never without placing one\u2019s own head on the chopping block.<\/p>\n
This past Friday, as the innocents were being massacred,
\nI witnessed a holy sadness
\nvisiting a family whose teenage son is in the last stages of life,
\ndying from brain cancer.<\/p>\n
As I stood at the foot of his bed,
\nI was privileged to watch his mother
\nwith her head propped up on her elbow,
\nlying next to her son on one side,
\nwhile his father, kneeling on the other side,
\nwatched over them both.<\/p>\n
And refracted through this Advent prism,
\nthis season of joyful promises in the midst of suffering,
\nof greetings of peace on earth while wars abound,
\nof a divine infant while hoards of Syrian children die
\nfrom mortar shells and starvation,
\nthrough this twisted refraction and oxymoronic season,
\nI perceived a kind of inverted cr\u00e8che,
\na paradoxical nativity,
\na blessed sadness,
\na vibrant brokenness,
\nas this holy family was birthing their son into death
\nwith the fierce hope of a final birthing into eternal life.<\/p>\n
Tradition has it that the turning point in the Buddha\u2019s life
\nwas his experience of four sights:
\na sick person, an old person, a deceased person and a monk.<\/p>\n
These experiences allowed the questions stirring within him
\nto come to focus, particularly
\n\u201cHow does one deal with the inevitable sufferings of human existence\u201d
\nin sickness, aging and death?<\/p>\n
Might answers lie in a religious quest?
\nSo he donned the robes of a monk
\nand set off on his search.
\nIn his search he discovered the miracle of mindfulness, (1)
\nthe invitation to accept what is happening
\nwithout clinging to what is happening,
\nto face what is going on in or around us with honesty,
\nto be gentle toward it, not because it is necessarily good, but because it is there.<\/p>\n
And then let it go \u2026 something we do in Christ.
\nIt is something that holy family I witnessed was doing in spades.<\/p>\n
Advent as a season of mindfulness
\ndoes not eradicate death,
\ndoes not remove the suffering or illness or anxiety that dogs us,
\ndoes not remove evil from the world,
\nbut in mindfulness worthy of the Baptist
\nallows them to be transformed,
\nafter a very long period of letting go,
\ninto peacefulness and one day, maybe even into joy,
\nbecause, like John, our mindfulness leads to a life of prophetic action.<\/p>\n
And so we listen to the poetess, a contemporary Baptist,
\nwhose mindfulness is worthy of the Buddha
\nas she muses: (2)<\/p>\n
Wage peace with your breath.<\/em> Breathe in terrorists and breathe out sleeping children<\/em>
\n Breathe in firemen and rubble,<\/em>
\n breath out whole buildings<\/em>
\n and flocks of redwing blackbirds.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n and freshly mown fields.<\/em>
\n Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.<\/em>
\n Breathe in the fallen<\/em>
\n and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.<\/em><\/p>\n