Happy Christians, Happy Christmas

Third Sunday of Advent Year C
December 17, 2006

One time I was invited to visit a house. When I used the toilet I saw a beautiful poem on the wall. It’s a poem about a promise of a parent to a child. It says something like this, “My child you may always misunderstood me, but all I want of you is happiness, because I love you.”

I remember this poem as I listen the second reading today from the letter of St. Paul to the Philippians. St Paul writes like a loving parent as he says, “I want you to be happy, always happy in the Lord; I repeat what I want is your happiness…”

“I want you to be happy…” Isn’t happiness what we want to our loved ones, to our parents, brothers and sisters? Isn’t happiness what we are longing for our family and for ourselves too?

If we ask ourselves today at this moment “Are you happy?” “Am I really happy?” What is your answer?

Command to be happy

God always wants us to be happy. It is God’s will that we, his children to be happy, to have joyful hearts, he wants us to be cheerful, to enjoy life and live life to its fullness.

Even though we all want to rejoice, the bare fact is that we rarely do, maybe because of various circumstances in our lives. As we all aware, depression is one of the greatest problems in our society today. According to study the enemies of joy or what stop the person to be happy are fear, worry and anxiety. Doctors say that these can also cause us heart problems.

On this Sunday the Third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, we all centered on joy, it is a time when we try to overcome our personal depressions, unnecessary worries, anxieties and whatever negative things we have in our mind. As the famous song goes, “don’t worry be happy.”

Answer

And so, now we face the question: what is, in fact, the remedy to worry, fear and anxiety? The answer is suggested in our readings today: to turn to God. We worry because we live as if God were not there. Depressions occur when we see ourselves surrounded by problems, but we don’t see we are also surrounded by God. The priest say at the Mass, “Lord deliver us from unnecessary anxieties..” St. Paul gives us a remedy to the our problems, he says, “there is no need to worry; but if there is anything you need, pray for it…ask God in prayer and thanksgiving. So we make more space for God in our lives.

John the Baptist

The Gospel today tells us that we have John the Baptist as a model of happy person. St. Luke gives us a glimpse into the personality of that wonderful person, John the Baptist. He is someone who is not conquered by fear, anxiety and worries in life. In the Gospel we heard about people were coming to him asking for enlightenment, searching for meaning in life. They are the materially fortunate people, soldiers and tax collectors, yet they come to John the Baptist, who is a man without any material possessions.

John the Baptist is a happy person because he recognizes Jesus not simply as a man, but he recognises him as the Christ the Son of God.

As John the Baptist announces the "good news," he encourages people to prepare for the coming of the Christ by making concrete changes in their lives.

As we can see our advent wreath has now 3 lighted candles, it’s now brighter, it makes us feel happier. We can be happy and joyful, for we have already heard the good news.

And this, my dear friends, is the Good News today, the only remedy from all our anxiety, fear and worry. This is the only reason why we should rejoice. We have Jesus, our God, who is the source of joy. Not money and material possessions can ever determine our happiness.

Jesus alone, only Jesus, always Jesus, can bring us happiness, eternal happiness.


Lord, help us to be joyful, prepared and ready for your coming. Amen