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December 16, 2024On our journey towards Christmas and towards the beginning of the Jubilee of the Lord 2025, today we find ourselves celebrating the third Sunday of Advent where the liturgy is completely dedicated to the theme of joy.This allows us to make some important considerations for our life: first of all, the invitation to joy is the invitation to experience something deeply desirable for our human nature. We are made for joy and happiness, not for sadness and mourning. Sometimes we face moments of sadness and pain, but our heart asks for joy, happiness, love and consolation. We must recognize that every man and every woman was created by God with this ineradicable desire for fullness. We wish to be joyful, although we sometime do not know what can bring us true joy.The word of God that we heard helps us to understand the foundation of true joy. There can also be a false joy, for example that which is based on temporal, transitory and fragile reasons. True joy requires a solid foundation capable of defying time and passing through the tribulations of life.There is a false joy when we place our security in ourselves, in what we possess or in our abilities like money, power and friendships with important people. In reality these things are not only fragile, but they can become idols that make us slaves. Slaves to appearance, success, money, career: all things that can seriously limit our freedom.The word of God shows us another path. In the first reading, prophet Zephaniah invites us to joy, to sing with joy. There are two reasons for this joy: first of all, the Lord has removed the condemnation and punishment for the sins committed by his people. Therefore, first source of joy is the forgiveness of God. The Lord is merciful. He does not come to condemn us but to free us from sin.The second reason for joy is the certainty that the Lord is among us, he has not abandoned us. Several times the people were in a situation of humiliation and the prophet addresses them indicating the presence of the Lord. This makes us understand that sadness is always rooted in solitude. When we are alone, we are all the more fragile and vulnerable. When the Lord comes among us and makes us his people united in love, then we find true joy and we can look to the future with hope.Dear brothers and sisters, the meaning of Christmas lies precisely in showing us that the Lord has decided to come among us, to pitch his tent among us. The joy that comes from Christmas is not like the joy that comes from possessing power or money, fragile and ambiguous. The joy that comes from the Lord present among us with his merciful love is the rock on which to build the future.Finally, I would like to draw your attention to the Gospel we heard. Once again, we are introduced to John the Baptist, the precursor, the one whose mission was to prepare the way for the Lord. Many approached him to ask for advice on what to do. Some thought he is the Messiah, the savior. John the Baptist instead immediately clarifies that “I baptise you with water, but someone is coming, someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandals; he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire”.In this way John the Baptist bears witness to Jesus: he invites to repentance, he invites to justice, he invites to open the heart to Christ who comes to baptize with Spirit and fire. John the Baptist did not attract attention to himself, but he opened the hearts of others to welcome Jesus, the Son of God.Dear brothers and sisters, let us ask ourselves what the foundation of our joy is, where do we place our hope? Let us purify our hearts from the sins and idols that enslave us and let us open ourselves, let us open the lives of our families to the Lord who comes to dwell among us.I also invite you to true joy, the one that does not disappoint and make us slaves. Like John the Baptist, I invite you to welcome Jesus as the true savior. I urge you in these days of Advent to pray in particular to the Mother of God, pray the rosary and with the other prayers of our spiritual tradition. She who gave us Jesus, brings us to Jesus, help us to recognize him present in our life as the foundation of that joy that nothing can ever take away from us. Amen
