Third Sunday in Advent at Mississippi Abbey

In Chicago’s O’Hare Airport we used to hear this message over and over: “The Department of Homeland Security has raised the advisory level to ORANGE!” It was ORANGE for so many years that people became complacent. I wondered what the other levels were, so I googled them. The lowest level was GREEN, everything is fine.  The next was BLUE, keep an eye on strangers acting suspiciously. Then YELLOW, you should report unattended packages. Level ORANGE meant there was risk of a terrorist attack.  Finally, the highest level was RED, go to confession and update your will. 

When John the Baptist came he raised the Messianic advisory level to RED, saying, “One mightier than I is coming … to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” So, tax collectors and soldiers asked John, “What should we do?” He replied, “Share your goods, stop collecting more than what is prescribed, do not falsely accuse anyone, and be satisfied with your wages.” These are ordinary deeds of justice and mercy, nothing very hard or difficult. But most people still didn’t change. What does it take to overcome complacency?

An African from Uganda told this story.¹ “My uncle, the chief, was sitting among his people in court one day when a man came and bowed in the African way. He came with eight cows and said, I come to return your cows. The chief replied, What do you mean? The man said, When I was looking after your cattle, I took four cows. Now there are eight. I am returning them to you.  The chief said, Did someone arrest you? Yes sir, Jesus arrested me. There was shocked silence. The chief could see this man was at peace with himself.  The man said, You may put me in prison but Jesus came my way and now I am free. The chief replied, Well, if Jesus has done that for you, who am I to put you in prison? You may go home. A few days later I went to see my uncle and said to him, Uncle, I hear you got eight cows! He said, Yes, it’s true. I replied, You must be happy. He said, No! Since that man came, I can’t sleep. If I want the peace he has, I must return a hundred cows! The chief himself was a thief. But the sincere repentance of that lesser thief shattered his complacency.   

Sometimes, all it takes is the good example of another person. Edith Stein was inspired to become a Catholic by reading the Autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila.  St. Teresa in her turn was inspired to a life of prayer by reading St. Augustine’s Confessions; Augustine was inspired to overcome his lust by St. Paul’s letter to the Romans; and St. Paul was overcome by encountering Christ himself. I was inspired by the good example of my parents, and by reading the life of “The Man Who God Even with God,” Br. Joachim Hanning, the first Trappist Lay Brother at Gethsemani.

In the story of the tax collectors and soldiers who came to John for baptism, there was someone in the crowd who was the first to come forward and be baptized by John, someone whose identity has been lost in time, perhaps a notable sinner whose example of repentance shattered the complacency of the others. I think all of us can name someone who inspired us to better ways of life.  Today it is John the Baptist saying, “The Department of Heavenly Security has raised the advisory level to RED.”  The kingdom of God is near at hand, so Repent and Rejoice!

1. Told by Festo Kivengere, (former Anglican Archbishop of Kigezi, Uganda, and leader of the African Enterprise evangelistic team), Decision magazine.