Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Homily for 5 Dec 2017

5 Dec 2017

“Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit.”  This passage in Luke is the only time we hear this about Jesus.  And it happened because the seventy-two disciples he’d sent out, came back telling him about how “even the demons are subject to [them] because of [his] name.”  He “rejoiced” because he saw hope for his beloved humanity. 

All was not lost.  People still had it in themselves to listen to God, and to let themselves be an extension of God in the world.  There was still hope.  And so Jesus “rejoiced.”  In the Greek, the word is “egángliásato,” which means “to jump and leap very much for joy.”  For most of us, I imagine the last time we did that was when we were children.  Jesus was overjoyed; he couldn’t contain himself he was so happy.  He “jumped for joy” in his prayer to the Father…there was hope for humanity.

If we ever want to know what makes God happy and…giddy…this is a good passage to reflect on.  God loves it when we trust him; when we let ourselves see and hear what he sees and hears; when we stop being our isolated selves and let God be our partner again in life—like it was “in the beginning.”  Advent is a time to get reoriented again to our Hope and our Light.  And we have it in ourselves to do that, just like the seventy-two disciples did.

“Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit.”  It happened once in the gospels.  The question is: will he rejoice again, today, for us?  Let’s hope so—for God’s sake, and for own, too.  After all, who wants to be joyless in a season of joyful hope?  

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