Homily for Sunday, December 17, 2006

(Zephaniah 3)

Iraq is a sore point for many Americans. But imagine how Iraqis feel. Yes, the dictator no longer threatens you. Yet his deadly legacy lurks inside every strange car, on every bump in the road. A foreign army occupies your country. Everyone agrees that its soldiers have little understanding of your culture. Worse still there are rumors that your occupier might leave. The evacuation would create chaos pitting your country’s Sunni Muslims against its Shiites. If there is not a civil war now, it will almost certainly break out then. This will expose the vulnerability of your Christian minority and will no doubt mean the breakup of the union. The tenuous situation leaves your whole country gravely concerned. Something similar could be said of the people of Judah at the time of the prophet Zephaniah. In the first reading today we hear what God wants this holy man to say.

Zephaniah tells the people of Judah to “rejoice.” It’s an incredible order with the country in peril. It is no longer really independent but has been made into a vassal state of Assyria. Its populace has largely abandoned the Covenantal law. The reformer king Josiah has been killed before being able to bring about necessary changes. So how can the people of Judah “rejoice”? Perhaps some of us feel similarly today. The Iraqi war is only part of the problem -- a small part -- unless, of course, we have a loved one in the military there. It’s the dozen daily urgencies that sap our strength. Perhaps a friend is dying of cancer although she bravely fights on. We find ourselves behind at work and haven’t done many Christmas “to dos” yet. Certainly not everyone is in the mood to rejoice.

But the prophet provides a reason for hope. God, the Lord of history, will stop punishing Israel for its sins. God uses the nations to accomplish his purpose as we use cars to go to work. He will stop sending foreign armies to Judah. The dark days of war, famine, and death of the nation’s finest will end. The situation will improve. It’s like the life of a commercial artist who was laid off of work. Although he received unemployment, he still called prospective employers and did freelance jobs whenever possible. Asked if rode his bicycle -- his favorite exercise -- on weekday mornings, he responded negatively. He was making every effort to get out of bed and look for a job because he knew that God was on his side.

God is, in fact, standing in our midst. We Christians know that He has come in Jesus of Nazareth. He has restored sight to the blind and opened our eyes, shut by pride, to faith. He cured lepers and liberated the possessed so that they might participate in society. Today he forgives our sins so that we might know the freedom to help our neighbor. Best of all, he has conquered death, the ultimate enemy whom even men as rich as Bill Gates must dread. For his sake we can now sacrifice our time, money and, if necessary, our lives.

Today’s gospel shows how John the Baptist had a sense of the Messiah’s coming. But John was as much an Old Testament prophet as a New Testament apostle. He preached the necessity to change our ways in preparation of the Lord. But he did not understand that Christ would be more like a breeze that refreshes than a winnowing fan that scorches.

The reading from Zephaniah ends on a lovely note. The Lord God will actually sing for us as Latinos sang las mañanitas on the feast of Guadalupe. His song is the hymn of the angels over the pastures of Bethlehem. We may join their chorus as we renew our belief in the coming of our savior.

Our “to do” lists lengthen at Christmas. We have greetings to send greetings, gifts to buy, friends to visit. Still, a dozen items remain to sap our strength. Fretting through it all, we may overlook the one whose name the season bears. Christ liberates us from all the urgencies that threaten us. He comes into our midst like a breeze that refreshes. Yes, he comes to refresh us.