While I am on retreat this weekend, I offer a copy of last year's homily, in which I lament those who lament and recommend joy!
Homily
Third Sunday of Advent
Scrooge couldn’t stand it. Now, as Dickens told it, there were a lot of things that Scrooge couldn’t stand, but this song in particular drove him crazy. That’s why we read that "...at the first sound of — "God bless you merry, gentlemen! May nothing you dismay!"— Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action, that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost."
Scrooge, like the Grinch, hated Christmas, the whole Christmas Season. And while Dr Seuss may not have quite known the reason, I think it’s quite clear. All the Scrooges and the Grinches of the world, indeed the Scrooge and the Grinch in each one of us, is allergic to and offended by the Comfort and Joy.
The problem with comfort and joy is that it’s impossible to feel them…and enjoy being miserable at the same time. One of my favorite recreational activities at various points in my life has been feeling sorry for myself. To put on the poor me sign, sit on my dung heap and pick my sores, all the while lamenting loudly how unfair life is and crowning myself king of the poor sad things.
But lamentation is a solitary art, not fit for those who choose to accept the comfort of the children of God.
• It’s impossible to be sad if I believe that God so loves me that he sent his only Son, in whose image and likeness I was made, to be born in the likeness of me.
• It’s impossible to be sad, if I truly believe that death is but a mirage, evil an empty set of adolescent seductions, and pain a passing trial which fades into insignificance in the face of the joy which awaits the just.
But still I’m tempted to reject God’s comfort and refuse to rejoice. Like a three year old on a bad day, I reject the crosses God sends me, stamp my feet, cry at the top of my lungs and threaten to hold my breath until I turn blue. You unfair God, you who has so unfairly given me all this suffering and subverts my every hope for joy, you gave that other guy over there everything that he wants, and me, what have you given me lately!? It’s not fair!
• You forgive the repentant sinner, but when’s the last time I won the Megabucks?
• You cure even the unbeliever of cancer, but what have you done about my aching back?!
• You let every corrupt politician gain power and abuse his office, but I can’t even get a promotion at work!
• You make other people, even unbelievers, to live in Hawaii or Palm Beach, or the Riviera….do you know how cold it got in my house when the power went out Lord?!
• You set it up so that the selfish and the arrogant get all the breaks, while those of us who go to Church each week have to schlep along by ourselves.
• You even make the sun shine on the good and the bad alike. You just don’t know how to treat your friends!
My child, God replies, you, my beloved child: How have I offended you? How have I let you down?
• Was it when I formed out of the dust of the earth to love in my image?
• Was it when I gave you lungs with which to breathe and arms with which to love, ears to hear, and eyes to see the beauty all around you?
• Was it when I emptied myself and took on human flesh, feeling your pains, knowing your heart, and bearing your sins?
• Was it when I taught you in parables and healed you from the ailments of your body and soul?
• Was it when I stretched out my arms on the cross and taught you how to love and to sacrifice?
• Was it when I rose from the tomb, defeating death, winning for you the promise of eternal life?
Why do you reject my comfort, my beloved child? Why do you refuse to accept the salvation I have bought for you and to rejoice with the joy of the children of God?
Hear the voice of my prophets, says the Lord:
• Rejoice! Break forth, shout joyfully together…For the LORD has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem.
• Shout for joy, O heavens! And rejoice, O earth! Break forth into joyful shouting, O mountains! For the LORD has comforted His people And will have compassion on His afflicted.
• As a mother comforts her infant, so I will comfort you.
Abandon your petty complaints, your narcissistic preoccupations, and your myopic self-indulgences. For none of it really matters!
All that truly matters is that God loves you more than you can ever know. Rejoice and be glad, for he has looked upon you in your lowliness and waits, again, to be born in your heart!
If that’s not a reason to rejoice, I don’t know what is!
God rest you merry, gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay,
For Jesus Christ our Savior
Was born on Christmas day,
To save us all from Satan's power
When we were gone astray:
O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy.
