Luke 3:10-18
The crowds asked John the Baptist, “What should we do?” He said to them in reply,“Whoever has two cloaks should share with the person who has none. And whoever has food should do likewise.” Even tax collectors came to be baptized and they said to him,
“Teacher, what should we do?” He answered them, “Stop collecting more than what is prescribed.” Soldiers also asked him, “And what is it that we should do?” He told them,
“Do not practice extortion, do not falsely accuse anyone, and be satisfied with your wages.” Now the people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Christ. John answered them all, saying,
“I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming.
I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor
and to gather the wheat into his barn,
but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Exhorting them in many other ways, he preached good news to the people.
Dominica Gaudii – Sunday of Joy
Again we have the challenge of looking at the gospel to find a message of joy to connect the word of God to the theme of the day. In this passage John offers a simple prescription for living. As Thomas Aquinas would say more than a 1000 years later after John preached to the locals, the second coat in your closet is not yours so give it away. It belongs to poor. Hmmm, I think we need to talk about that. Maybe my second hunting coat or my second fishing coat but not all of them besides the first one. I digress.
Should we expect joy from living honestly as challenged John or should the knowledge of having done the next right thing be enough reward for doing what we should be doing without expectation of return? Right living alone is not enough. What else does John say that might lead to Joy? There is his promise of the coming of Christ, the same promise we embrace today. Jesus is coming. He will baptize us with the spirit and draw us to himself as the miller stores the good wheat after the chaff is separated.
The more I reflect on this short passage, the more kernels of the finest grain I find. He said not to extort, do not be dishonest, be satisfied and generous with what we have. If we do all these things then we will find joy but we also have to be secure in our belief of the coming incarnation. Understanding these things fills me with a sense of joy because they are all things I can do, things I have been doing, things that we all do together. I am not giving away all of my coats just yet but I will give to the poor who will not offer me any praise and not just to those who I hold dear. I just have to take the first step and let go of what I don’t need.
In the days since I first started this reflection something curious has happened. I find myself settling deeper into the anticipation of the incarnation. Thinking back over the course of the year I find myself stunned on the changes the world has seen but even more acutely, the changes I have progressed through. The beginning of the year was filled with hesitation and anxiety as I stood at the brink of transition from living out a vocation to leaving all of that behind to start a new phase of life in which there will not be a regular pay deposit every two weeks for the first time in 43 years. Nearly a half of a century. A very long time.
In the days since retirement, the anxiety has faded into a new routine that I dearly love. I recognize how blessed I have been over the years but how even more blessed I am today than ever. EVER. I lack nothing except, perhaps, a proper attitude of humility and gratitude but I will work on those things with increased diligence because today I have JOY I can’t even begin to express. That is right, joy.
What could even be more joyful? Acceptance of Christ even deeper into my heart, deeper into my essence, deeper into my being and deeper in every way to everyone in my life and, of course, beyond those limitations of time and space.
Maybe it is time to stock and ask just how many coats I really need and can some of them serve more than one purpose. The prospect of doing that brings me….. not joy. No yet but certainly a hope of more joy.
Post Script
Paul Harvey used to have a feature called “the Rest of the Story” which I dearly loved to listen to and that I miss hearing to this day but the phrase works here. And now here is the rest of the story.
I attended a retreat in Great Falls over the weekend at the Ursuline Centre. The retreat is annual event for me which I have enjoyed the last 13 years except for last year because the flipping pandemic messed it up. On Wednesday a terrible wind driven fire torched a large area of open
land just outside Great Falls but in a course of hours multiple structures were totally were burnt to the ground- or worse. Paul, the cook at the Centre for many years was one of those who, as the saying goes, lost everything. Fortunately he was not home when the fire happened so he is safe but all he had left to wear was the clothes he had with him in a room where he stays while working.
I brought two coats to Great Fall with me. I brought only one home.
So it begins.
