Oblates of St. Francis de Sales

New DeSales World Newsletter - Summer Edition

3rd Sunday of Advent (December 12, 2004)

Suggested Emphasis

"Go and tell John what you hear and see." Rejoice! Jesus is the true Messiah who brings healing and strength to God's people.

Salesian Perspective

God's promise of salvation becomes more specific in the readings from both the Gospel of Matthew and the Book of the Prophet Isaiah.

The people of God had been waiting a long time for the arrival of the One who would save them from sin. The people of God waited a long time for the arrival of the One who would establish God's covenant with them forever. Still, fundamental questions faced those waiting for this long-expected divine intervention: When would the Messiah come? How will we know when the Messiah actually appears? What will be the tenor or tone of his message? What will be the signs for which we should watch?

Jesus' response is clear and unambiguous: he enumerates the signs that accompany the arrival of the long-expected Savior.

The Messiah, who is Jesus, spent his life redeeming - not condemning - God's people. The hallmarks of Jesus' ministry were hope and healing. The source of Christ's liberating message was the power and promise of God's redeeming love.

Advent reminds us that God keeps God's promises. Advent reminds us of the signs of God's ongoing liberating, redeeming and transforming love present in our own age. Advent reminds us of our own need to reform -- to change our hearts -- that we might know the full power of the hope to which all of us are called.

St. Francis de Sales wrote: "Who now will have any doubt as to our abundant means of salvation since we have so great a Savior, in view of whom we have been made and by whose merit we have been ransomed?" (Treatise on the Love of God, Bk II, Chapter 5) Still, this tremendous gift brings with it a tremendous responsibility. St. Francis de Sales emphasized that God works in each and every human heart: therefore, as Christians living "in the world" we must recognize that our relationships with one another are an integral part of God's ongoing plan of salvation. Seen through the perspective of the "Gentleman Saint," Advent challenges us to live fundamental questions of our own: are we convincing signs of the presence of the Messiah? Are we signs of God's redeeming and transforming love? Are we sources of hope and healing in the lives of others?

Most of us will invest a great deal of time and energy decorating our homes and our neighborhoods in ways that help us to celebrate the miracle of Christ's birth, the manifestation of the power and promise of God's Incarnational Love, a love embodied in the life, ministry and message of Jesus Christ. How deliberately and thoroughly do we decorate our lives with those virtues that speak to the presence of that same Messiah in our relationships with one another? When people encounter us, do they "hear and see" signs of the Messiah?

David J. Herrington is Regional Director the De Sales Spirituality Center for Southwest Florida. He and his wife Jane
are members of St. Cecilia's Catholic Community in Ft. Myers.