God’s Word to You, The Hope of Joy

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me – the Lord has anointed me – He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor – to heal the broken hearted – to proclaim liberty to the captives – release to prisoners – to announce a year of favor from the Lord – a day of vindication by our God – the passage from the prophet Isaiah is the passage that Jesus Himself sites, in that solemn moment, when He begins His public ministry – this reading is speaking realistically of so much suffering – all the pain and sadness that so many people find themselves in – when He speaks of the broken hearted – the poor in many different senses, financially, friendships, family, health – the captives those who are in slavery, so much in history and  even today human trafficking – there are other slaveries like addictions – there are so many prisoners, today – in all of these painful, sad situations it is to that Jesus is coming for – this Gaudete Sunday this Sunday of rejoicing in the Lord, He is coming for those who are suffering – especially for those in sadness – in Jesus Christ a lot of things can change – in Jesus Christ there enters a cause for rejoicing, despite all of the struggles – lives can change, families can change, whole societies can change, when they open themselves up to the power of Jesus Christ – Jesus has this good news to announce that even if this path is challenging here on earth, He opens to us the possibility of infinite joy – He didn’t create us for sadness –  He created us for infinite joy – that becomes a real possibility for all of us no matter what situations we are in right now or how painful our situation is – the possibility of infinite joy is open through Jesus Christ – so Jesus brings the hope of joy – we know that believing in Jesus doesn’t magically remove all of the sufferings in our life – His path on this earth is very demanding, but it gives us hope of joy – the first phrase of the prophesy is, “ the Spirit of the Lord is upon me” – this is the work of the Holy Spirit for the broken hearted, the poor, prisoners in bondage, it is the work of the Holy Spirit to liberate them, bring them hope of joy – that is the divine fire of the Holy Spirit – how can we cooperate with that fire? – that is a key point and depends on our cooperation – God has created us to be free, so He calls on our free response – it is a measure of how each one of us responds to Him – in the first reading today St. Paul says, “Do not extinguish the Holy Spirit.” – the Holy Spirit is coming to transform by Divine Love this world and bring it to joy – St. Paul said we can extinguish the work of the Holy Spirit all the time – so many times the Holy Spirit is inspiring us and we extinguish what He is doing – Or He is acting in someone else’s life and another person extinguishes that work – how can we let the fire of the Holy Spirit grow, which leads to joy –  this passage is important for all the world today, “Do not despise prophesy.”-  St. Paul is showing  how important it is to not extinguish the Holy Spirit, so the fire can grow – the Lord pounded it in the Mission of Divine Mercy community’s head how important prophesy is – on this Gaudete Sunday, you can see how important prophesy is in the readings – prophesy means God is speaking to us – God revealing Himself to His people – Prophesy is God speaking to one person to give the message to other people  – the core is God Himself speaking to His people and that is so powerful to strengthen our hope of joy – the Psalm we had today was not a Psalm it was actually the Magnificat the great canticle of Mary right after she has conceived Our Lord, when she goes to visit Elizabeth then Mary is filled with the Holy Spirit and she utters this canticle of praise – this is a prophetic word from the Blessed Mother herself given to us today – Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”  – the true source of joy is God, the God Who comes to save us – Mary sends us what the coming of Jesus means – when the fullness of His kingdom is realized – Mary says, “ He has shown strength with His arm, He has scattered the proud, and the imagination of their hearts, He has knocked down the proud and lifted up the lowly, He has put down the mighty from their thrones, He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich He has sent away empty.” – we are given from our Blessed Mother this prophetic sense of what God is going to realize – in the Gospel, we have the great prophet, John the Baptist the greatest prophet who comes announcing the presence of the Messiah – John the Baptist recites from another prophet Isaiah, John said this prophesy from Isaiah is today accomplished – John said,” I am the voice crying out in the desert and am announcing to you the great prophetic message, the great joy that your Messiah that you have been waiting for centuries is now here.” – If you accept Him, His Holy Spirit can begin to act in you – we have another example of Jesus Himself reciting prophesy – as we often mention, prophesy isn’t just things that happen in scripture – as Thomas Aquinas says, “God continues to give the grace of prophesy throughout all the ages of the Church.” – another example of prophetic grace is Our Lady of Guadalupe, which was given much later in the history of the Church, but it is closer to our time – it was a terrible time with the Aztecs believed that their gods were wanting many human sacrifices, so they would capture people from other tribes and keep them alive until they were paraded up for all to see and the priest would take a knife and open up the chest of a living victim and take out their beating heart – they thought this is what their gods wanted – what type of gods are these, these are demons – so you can imagine the joy of learning that is not God – not the true God- the true God on the contrary offers Himself in sacrifice out of love for each one of us – so it is the joy of knowing the true God – it is bringing in the midst of all of the problems and corruption and injustice the encounter between Europeans and Native Americans caused – in Our Lady of Guadalupe there is cause of great joy, everlasting joy coming of the Lord – coming of faith in Jesus Christ – the light of Jesus Christ to this new world where they were living – one concrete thing we can do this Advent as a way of being open to the prophetic word is to read the account of Our Lady of Guadalupe – very simple, beautiful, encouraging, consoling – is given especially to Mexico, but to all of the Americas – that is the reason the mission has her image on Tepeyac Hill – it isn’t only a prophetic word, but a prophetic miraculous image – it would be a great Christmas gift to give someone – be open to  the prophetic gifts the Holy Spirit gives us – so our life here on earth is difficult and hearing from a lot of people struggling, because it has been a very difficult year – as our country enters into dealing with covid and now a constitutional crisis – very difficult time with the crisis in the Church – we need to be realistic about all of that – but today the Lord is announcing the hope of eternal joy – by welcoming His prophetic word, in times of darkness strengthens us in hope – recalling the passage from St. Peter, we read last week, “ We have the prophetic word made more sure “ it is important to pay attention to the prophetic words – St. Peter said, “ You do well to pay attention to this as a lamp shining in a dark place” – our world is often dark, so if we focus on the prophetic word, it gives us a light – a light of hope and joy – until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts – end with the second part of the passage today from Isiah, “ I rejoice greatly in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul , for He has clothed me with a robe of salvation and wrapped me in a mantle of justice like a bridegroom adorned  with a diadem like a bride bedecked with her jewels, as the earth brings forth its’ plants and a garden makes its’ growth spring up, so will the Lord God make justice and praise spring up before all the nations, I rejoice greatly in the Lord and my God is the joy of my soul.”