4th Sunday Advent B - Homily 3

Homily 3 - 2014

There is a lot of violence in our world: the hostage siege in Sydney last week; the domestic tragedy in Cairns on Friday; the massacre by the Taliban of 130 innocent school children in Pakistan; the revelation of systemic torture carried out over recent years by our nation’s allies. Personally I regard the enforced indefinite detention of refugees on Nauru and Manus Island as a form of cruel psychological torture. Violence to me speaks of profound unhappiness, not just of its victims but equally of its perpetrators. Happy people are not drawn to violence. On a more mundane level, I ask myself whether the lead up to Christmas serves to raise or to lower the happiness threshold for people around us.

I have been reflecting on all this with the opening line of last Sunday’s Epistle still echoing in my head: Be happy at all times. Pray constantly. For all things give thanks to God. Was St Paul living on a different planet? One thing, I believe, is clear: If my happiness depends on others behaving differently, then I may as well give up. Paul suggested that we pray constantly. The image comes to my mind of those dogs that you sometimes see at International Airports that have been trained to sniff out drugs in passengers’ luggage. The constant praying that Paul was talking about is the kind of prayer that trains us to pick up the scent of God – anywhere, everywhere.

I scent the presence of God even in the tragic incident in Sydney last week. It is almost as if there has been a backlash against the threat of backlash against the Muslim community in general. That “I’ll walk with you” initiative, and the way it was picked up by thousands, were both inspired.

In today’s Readings, I find beautiful alternatives to violence – fail-safe recipes for happiness. In the Second Reading Paul spoke of the obedience of faith. In the Greek language in which Paul wrote, the word translated as obedience carries the meaning of a sensitive tuning in to the heart of another. And the word translated as faith has the sense rather of trust, complete trust. The obedience of faith is then a confident, trusting tuning in to the heart of God, to the God who loves and who yearns to give life to the full to everyone. In the real world of everyday life, obedience of faith speaks of the constant search to pick up the scent of God, to sniff out the presence of God who cares, who loves; and who in that loving care, is calling and enabling us to grow and even to flourish in the midst of whatever is going on.

I see the attitude exemplified in the trusting, quiet, peaceful confidence of Mary as she faced into, and willingly took on, an uncertain but daunting unknown: Let what you have said be done to me. Already she had learnt to treasure experience, to ponder it, and to pick up there the scent of the loving God whom she could completely trust.

That to me is the way to life, the way to happiness and fulfilment. It does not depend on others. But we need constant training if we are to pick up the scent of God and to discover ever more clearly the compassionate heart of God and God’s commitment to life to the full for all of us. As Advent builds up to Christmas, in the few days that are left, no matter what goes on in the world out there or nearer home, may we all experience an irrepressible underlying current of vibrant, confident, trusting happiness.