2nd Sunday of Advent, Year C - December 5th, 2021

Last week we began a new liturgical year, and with it a new cycle of Sunday Mass readings. The Church’s “Gospel of choice” in Year C is Luke. Some very well-known stories and parables (i.e. the Prodigal Son) are found only in this Gospel, and it is also our chief Scriptural source for the life of Our Lady and for the Joyful Mysteries of Christ’s conception, birth, and early childhood.

Our Scripture sharing this Sunday, however, focused on the First Reading from the prophet Baruch. Several Sisters commented on how this beautiful but little-known passage grabbed their attention in a new and powerful way this year. To begin with, one Sister drew our attention to the image of “taking off” the “garb of mourning” and “putting on” God’s own glory and receiving a new name from Him. This command of the Lord means nothing less than a complete transformation; it is truly a call to recognize and embrace our incredible new identity as children of God through Baptism. Even the new name itself is a profound mystery: what does it mean to be “the glory of God’s worship?” Those familiar with the mystical tradition of the Church might see here a kinship with St. Elizabeth of the Trinity’s famous insight into being “a praise of glory.” We are called to give God not simply our adoration and praise, but our very selves, our entire being. While religious men and women live this reality in a particularly radical way, it is a call for every Christian man, woman, and child. The key, however, is to remember that “of ourselves we can do nothing” – that this beautiful transformation is entirely a work of God’s grace. It is He who “carries” His children into glory, as Baruch reminds us. This does not mean that we are to be merely passive (quite the contrary!) but that we are to strive for holiness with a keen and humble awareness that all our good deeds are ultimately the work of God in us.

Another Sister posed an interesting question about this passage. Passionists often refer to our unique religious habit as the “garment of mourning and penance,” so what are we to make of Our Lord’s command to “take off the garb of mourning?” Isn’t it He Who called us to wear this garb in the first place? The answer lies in the deeper mystery of what it means to be a Passionist. Yes, we have received a special vocation to live at the foot of the Cross, compassionating Our Lord’s sufferings and weeping with Him over the sins of the world – but our life is not meant to be one of gloom and sadness. In fact, many people are surprised by how joyful we are! This is possible because we live by the Beatitude, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Our mourning is not an end in itself, but rather the means by which we enter into a deep and true joy. To express it in terms of the Paschal Mystery, our lives are meant to be a continual passing from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. Lucy Burlini, a spiritual directee of St. Paul of the Cross, had a unique vision of the Passionist Congregation in Heaven. She asserted that the glorified Passionists wear not black, but white – as well as purple, gold, and red! This “colorful” description is simply an image for the underlying truth that the Passion and the Resurrection always go together, that those who “have died with Christ … will also live with Christ!”

To take it a step further, one Sister noted how Our Holy Founder often described suffering and renunciation themselves as a “festival” or a “feast.” This strange comparison is based on a profound truth: love, the heart of the entire Paschal Mystery, embraces both suffering and joy. On earth, in this “vale of tears,” love (i.e. self-gift) is most powerfully expressed through voluntary acceptance of suffering and death for the sake of the beloved. In Heaven, love no longer needs the “medium” of suffering and can pour itself out in utter joy – but it is still the same reality of charity! The Son of God giving His human life sorrowfully on the Cross and the Son of God giving Himself joyously in the heart of the Trinity are two sides of the same coin. What a change would it make in our lives if we realized that the suffering which faces us today is an opportunity to “practice” for the eternal joy of Heaven? God will remember every one of our tears, and in eternity we will see with awe the incredible reality the glory that was underlying each sorrow of our mortal life!