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"He came as a witness, as a witness to speak for the Light"
John 1:7
A little bug who hung out in a big city museum had heard tales of the incredible beauty of Persian rugs. One day, he found his way into the exotic rug section and began to crawl through the most valuable rug in the collection in search of its incredible beauty. As he moved through patches of brown and grey and green and yellow and purple, he kept saying to himself, "That incredible beauty must be here somewhere" but, alas, he never found it. And he gave up the search, not realizing that he had been crawling around in one of the most beautiful Persian rugs in all the world.
Obviously, the little bug failed to discover what he was looking for due to lack of proper perspective. In order to appreciate the beauty of the thing, he would need to be lifted up, to rise above it.
So it is with our ability to appreciate the life God has given us. That is why Jesus focused on the need for lifted-up hearts. Perspective is gained from heights. "Lift up your hearts!"..."We lift them up unto the Lord." The higher we rise above the blinding, blurry sensory perceptions of self, and the farther removed we are from the sameness of things, and the more we allow our spirits to soar, the sooner life becomes a thing of incredible beauty.
Jesus once said: "I, if I be lifted up." And He was lifted up to a high point of personal relationship with the Father because he relinquished all claim to Himself. Now he invites us all to do the same. He invites us to relinquish all claim to the self (the self which is capable only of bug-in-a-rug-like journeying). He invites us to allow God to step in and lift our spirits high above the self, to a point where we can see things in proper perspective -- where life begins to make sense.
In keeping with the Advent theme of high hope and great expectation, the Old Testament Prophet Isaiah joyfully announces:
The Lord has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release the prisoners
...I rejoice heartily in the Lord
...As the earth brings forth its plants,
so will the Lord God make justice and praise spring up before all nations" (Is. 61:1,2,11).
And, in today's Gospel Lesson, the mood of keen anticipation continues as John the Baptist proclaims "the One who is to come and bring light to the world...the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to unfasten" (Jn. 1:27).
This is the season when, in the same spirit of high hope and great expectation, little children wonderfully sum it all up in three little words: Christmas is coming!
Joy to the world! Peace on earth, good will toward men! Christmas is coming! Christmas: symbol of our high hopes and great expectations for life's fulfillment in happiness. That's what we're all after, is it not? Isn't happiness the goal of life? Or is it? Do I surprise you when I say that happiness is not our goal in life? Do I not have things in proper perspective? Yet, this is precisely the meaning of the Light that comes into our lives on Christmas Day. The message of Christmas is that we are called to follow the Lord Jesus in doing God's Will. That is the constant teaching of the Gospel: not "Thou shalt be happy," but "Thou shalt do the Will of God."
Are we wrong then to tell ourselves and our children that God wants us to be happy? On the contrary, our fulfillment in happiness is God's promise to us. It is the reason for our Christmas hopes and expectations. But, as Jesus tells us over and over again, happiness is the consequence of doing God's Will, the fruit of doing God's Will. It comes not because we sought after it; it comes by the Grace of God. Stop worrying over all those things you think are going to make you happy, Jesus says. "Your heavenly Father knows what you need. Seek first his Kingship over you, His way of holiness, and all these will be given you besides" (Mt. 6:32-33). In other words, "Do my Father's Will and He will make you happy."
"What does it profit a man" -- this frantic pursuit of what we have been conditioned to call "happiness?" A play was written in which a man dies and passes into the next world. When he opens his eyes, he sees laid out before him more beauty and uxury than he ever dreamed possible, more than he ever dared hope for. He finds himself in a state of being in which every wish is granted, instantly. At the slightest whim, an attendant appears to see that it is immediately fulfilled. After a time, the man grows restless, bored. "If only, just once, there would be a refusal." Finally, the monotony becomes unbearable, and he summons the attendant saying, "I want something that I can't have unless I earn it." "Sorry," the attendant replies, "that's the one wish we cannot grant here." "Very well," the man says, "then let me out of here, I would rather be in hell." Whereupon the attendant asks, "And where do you think you are, sir?"
"Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it so much dawned on man what God has prepared for those who love Him" (I Cor. 2:9). "Now we see indistinctly, as in a mirror" (I Cor. 13:12). This is the Apostle Paul's way of saying that although true happiness in the Blessed Community is our destiny, we cannot know true happiness here on earth. But there is a kind of happiness on earth that gives us a glimpse of our eternal destiny. And whether or not we catch that glimpse depends upon our choice of life-goals -- our willingness to see life in proper perspective. If we regard money and things, comfort, leisure, passing pleasure, power and prestige as ends in themselves -- as life-goals -- then our vision of true happiness will be as distorted as that of the man who died and couldn't tell the difference between heaven and hell. If, on the other hand, the Will of God is our first priority, we will, by the Grace of God catch our human glimpse of the Divine Life. Our happiness is God's concern. Our concern is to do God's Will.
John the Baptist "came as a witness, as a witness to speak for the Light," the Apostle John tells us in today's beautiful Gospel Reading. Now we have come into the world as witnesses to the Light. In the Apostle Paul's words, we have come into the world...
To "comfort and upbuild one another"
To "remain at peace with one another"
To "cheer the fainthearted"
To "support the weak"
To "be patient toward all"
To "see that no one returns evil to any other"
To "always seek one another's good and, for that matter, the good of all" (II Thes. 5:11,13,14-16).
May the coming of Christmas enable us to see our life in this perspective! "Lift up your hearts"..."We lift them up unto the Lord!"
