Jesus, I trust in you!
Rejoice in the Lord always…Indeed
the Lord is near!
John the Baptist was at the center
of the limelight. People went out into the desert to hear him preach and have
themselves baptized by him. The Lord Jesus even said that John the Baptist was
a shining light and people rejoiced in that light. Light has a natural power to
give joy. Do we not instinctively clap our hands when light is restored at the
end of a brown out? People thought that John the Baptist was the light. But he
told them that he was not the Christ. “He was not the light but came to testify
to the light.” He came to prepare the way of the Lord.
The light he testified to is Jesus.
Jesus is the true light of the world. He is the one who gives joy to the world:
I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete
(John 15:11) Jesus was sent “to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and release to prisoners, to
announce a year of favor from the Lord.” His coming to us brings us joy. The
joy that Jesus brings is the joy that comes from the closeness of God to us.
That is why it surprises us that
Christmas depresses people. We hear Christmas songs that express loneliness:
“Ang Disyembre ko ay malungkot…” “Pasko na sinta ko, hanap hanap kita…” Why do
people get depressed during Christmas? Why are they overcome by sadness? I
think it is because we have become too engrossed with ourselves. We keep on
looking at ourselves so much that we begin to see what we do not have…what we
lack. I am sad because I do not have you. I am sad because we are not together.
I am sad because I do not have.
Looking too much at my own self, I
become miserable. I have forgotten that Christmas is not about me. It is about
Jesus whose birthday it celebrates. John the Baptist explains our misery:
“There is one among you whom you do not recognize, the one who comes after me.”
Our poverty makes us so sad that we fail
to recognize him who brings glad tidings to the poor. Our broken hearts take up
so much of our attention that we fail to recognize him who heals the broken
hearted. We are captives of our own selves, imprisoned in our self-centered
lives that we fail to recognize him who proclaims liberty to the captives and
release to the prisoners. We are sad because we think that the Lord has
abandoned us. This is not true! The Lord is near us especially in our sorrows.
He is closer to us more than we can ever imagine. He is so close to us. We
simply do not recognize him. If only we look beyond ourselves and look at
Jesus, we will hear him announce to us a year of favor from the Lord.
Although John the Baptist was a
shining light, people rejoiced in his light but only for a while. He was not
the light. Our joy is not in John but in Jesus. Jesus is the true light who
shines on every man. The one who follows him will never walk in darkness but
will always have the light of life. “In Jesus lies salvation. In Him it is
possible to find interior peace and the strength to face different life
situations every day, even the most difficult ones…we are filled with peace
because we know how to place our joy in the Lord even when going through the
most difficult moments in life. To have faith does not mean never to have
difficult moments but to have the strength to face those moments knowing that
we are never alone. This is the peace that God gives his children.” (Pope
Francis, Angelus Message, December 14, 2014.)
O Mary conceived without sin, pray
for us who have recourse to thee!
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