Perhaps you’ve noticed that over the past couple of years, every kind of institution from schools and parishes, to hospitals, charities and universities have followed the lead of big corporations and spent long hours writing and publicizing some kind of mission statement.
While I confess that I’m not a big fan of this trend, I also have to admit that it isn’t an entirely bad thing for the members of a group or institution to remind themselves, and those who want to know about them, what work they really want to be about doing – what mission they most want to accomplish.
Sticking with this kind of corporate language, I think we hear a kind of “mission statement” in our first reading today. Through the words of the prophet Isaiah, the Messiah says of himself:
“The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the Lord!”
This is the mission that the Messiah has been sent by God to accomplish. He brings a reversal of fortunes that reorders the world according to God’s justice and liberty, and ushers in a new era of God’s peace: those who walked in darkness, see light; the imprisoned are set free; the brokenhearted are healed and the poor are made glad.
When Jesus begins His public ministry, He returns to His hometown of Nazareth and visits the local synagogue on the Sabbath. He is given the honor of reading the Scriptures that day, and He read this very section of text from the prophet Isaiah.
St. Luke then records in his Gospel that, Jesus “rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him, and He said to them ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’”
In His earthly ministry; in His preaching and in His miracles; Jesus makes clear, that He is Himself the long-awaited Messiah. He takes on Himself this mission statement of the Messiah, and actually accomplishes the vindication and liberation that was promised.
This is why we celebrate Gaudate, or ‘Rejoice,’ Sunday. In the midst of our Advent waiting and longing, we celebrate the fact that Jesus is the fulfillment of our longings. He is the source of our healing, our liberation and our glad tidings. He is the Messiah the world has always longed for.
And so in our second reading St. Paul encourages the faithful to “rejoice always.” Paul is not talking about a constant state of giddiness. He is not encouraging us into a naïve exuberance that ignores the struggles and hardships we sometimes face.
Rather, he is reminding us that on a deeper level, we Christians must have the joyful confidence that comes from believing that Jesus truly is the Son of God. We must have a hope and joy that is not fleeting or emotional, not based on our changing mood or circumstances, but a joy that the world cannot give, and the world cannot take away.
In today’s Gospel, we hear yet again about John the Baptist, the great forerunner of the Messiah. John, it is said, “was sent by God and came for testimony, to testify to the light so that all might believe through him.”
John prepared the way for Jesus and announced His arrival. He made known to all who would hear him that the Messiah, the one promised and hoped for, was near at hand.
Now, as we await Jesus’ return in glory, we are called to announce His second coming and to prepare the world for His kingdom.
If we look around at us, or even inside ourselves, we will undoubtedly recognize a world truly in need of the Messiah. How many people today are broken-hearted because they have lost a loved one, or are struggling through divorce?
How many people have lost hope because they have lost their jobs, or find it difficult to support their families adequately? How many people are held captive by mental illness, or addiction, or other kinds of depression and anxiety?
The world still desperately needs to be assured that Jesus Christ is our only hope – He is the Messiah sent to save us and to free us. And if we do not testify to the light, who will? If the suffering of this world cannot come to belief and hope through us, than through whom will they come to Jesus?
Brothers and sisters by Baptism we became “other Christs.” We were anointed, like Jesus, and sent by the Father on mission, just like Jesus. Therefore we must make the Messiah’s mission statement are own. With His grace we must help Him in bringing glad tidings to the poor, in healing the brokenhearted, in proclaiming liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners.
We must ask ourselves, how can I live so that others can come to believe through me?
This Gaudete Sunday we not only have our own hope and faith restored, we are strengthened in our mission to make the joyful coming of the Lord known to a world that still desperately longs to hear the angel’s “tidings of great joy.”
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