What a wonderful vision!

This is the 3rd Sunday of Advent – the midway point. It’s when we light the pink candle instead of another blue or purple candle. Pink is the color of rejoicing and gladness. On your handout is a picture of a vista point, an overlook. Has anyone every climbed Monterrey Blvd. going south out of Palm Desert, climbed the mountain going toward Idylwild and stopped and the lookout point? You can see the entire Coachella Valley spread beneath your feet. This 3rd Sunday of Advent is kind of like that vista point – a spiritual opportunity to look back at the world as it is, at some of the things we want to change in our lives – but also to look up at our destination and our goal, where we want to go, where we want to be heading. We must always keep our eyes set on the goal, and not get trapped living in the valley and in the past. Where are we going? What is our destination?

First, let’s look at the world as it is – the things we want to change, the chains that sometimes imprison us, the false worlds that destroy lives. I need a volunteer. [Pick one of the young people or children. Put handcuffs on one of them. Then ask them to identify items in a box that enslave or imprison us]

First item: A beer. This represents the world of addictions. Addictions are things that enslave us – it can be an addiction to alcohol, or drugs, or sex, or spending, or gambling.

Second item: A knife. This represents the world of violence, resentment, anger, hatred. Violence is not always physical. It can be verbal. Cutting, hurtful words. Ignoring another person. Cutting them down behind their back. Gossip. Lies. Hidden resentment or anger. An inability or an unwillingness to forgive or let go of a past hurt.

Third item: Money. This represents the world of false priorities and values. The quest and thirst for material goods in order to buy our way into happiness. But money and things never, in the long run, buy real happiness.

Fourth item: A whistle. This symbolizes the world of always on the run. We live in a society that is always rushing here and there. Hurriedness can enslave and imprison us.

Fifth item: The handcuffs themselves. These symbolize the world of frustration and discontent. Lots of people are living lives of quiet, hidden anger and frustration, seething over this or over that. I believe there is a hidden rage in many people, just bubbling below the surface, often suppressed but also, ready to explode. Or they are angry and frustrated because, in their eyes, life has thrown them a raw deal. They are not content with what they have. They are blind to the blessings that God has given to them.

[Ask kid] Do you want to stay chained and handcuffed? Or do you want to go free? Let’s look at some of the keys that can free us, that can unlock the prisons that enslave us. [Take out some keys and unchain the young person who is helping you]

Always remember that the good news is that God wants to heal us and free us and unlock those chains. That’s what we celebrate in Advent, why we say Advent is a season of hope and of joy. But it is up to us to cooperate with God by being people of hopefulness and joy, people of faith that God can unlock our chains.

In our gospel today, John the Baptist is in chains. He is in jail, and he is frustrated and despondent. If Jesus is the Messiah, why doesn’t he free me? Why doesn’t he even come to visit? Why does he permit me to suffer and rot in this jailhouse? But Jesus tells John’s followers to go back and tell him: “The blind can see, the lame can walk, those who suffer from dreaded skin diseases are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead are brought back to life, and the Good News is preached to the poor.” – Matthew 11:5 (TEV)

Then we have this one very telling verse from Jesus: “How happy are those who have no doubts about me!" – Matthew 11:6 (TEV)

Let’s look at some of the keys that will unlock the prisons that enslave us!

[Pull out an O’Doules] This is a non-alcoholic beer. It symbolizes our victory over addiction. Addictions are difficult to overcome, but we need to stop them and overcome them, because they will destroy us and destroy our families. Few people can overcome addictions by themselves. That’s why it is important to admit the problem, turn to God for help, but also – turn to other people for help. Get into a support group like AA or NA. We have lots of support groups, and even our own parish-based counseling center, right here to help. Please: Don’t try to battle your problem by yourself. St. Paul tells us in Colossians 3:13: “Bear with one another….” – Colossians 3:13 (NAB)

A second key: the Bible. This symbolizes trusting and leaning on God. God can help us overcome anger and resentment. We need to forgive those who have trespassed against us. We need to let go of anger that has festered and built up over time and is like the time bomb about to explode. I knew a couple who had been married 20 years. She discovered that her husband had been unfaithful. But he was truly sorry, truly repentant, begged her for forgiveness, promised to do everything in his power to regain her confidence and trust. They had several children. She found it hard to forgive, hard to let go. She wanted to know all the details, even though none of those details would make the pain of betrayal go away or be any less. I suggested that the couple join hands and pray together every night – facing each other, a Bible in the middle, seeking God’s healing in their marriage, seeking God’s strength to forgive and to move on, not to live enslaved to the past, but also, not to go on repeating the same mistakes from the past. Nobody can change their past. And sometimes, the scars remain for years from the mistakes we make. But God heals and forgives and forgets, and can give us the strength and the power to do the same.

The Bible tells us that anger and bitterness and hatred ultimately destroy. The book of Job in the Old Testament tells us: “Resentment kills the senseless, and anger brings death to the fool.” – Job 5:2 (NJB) In our second reading today, James tells us: “Do not make complaints against one another, brothers, so as not to be brought to judgment yourselves; the Judge is already to be seen waiting at the gates. – James 5:9 (NJB)

A third key: A football and flowers. To overcome the slavery to false values, focus your time and energy on what really matters – God, your marriage, your family. The football is a reminder to play with your kids and spend time with them and give them your love and attention. The flowers remind you to play with your wife, too – to keep the fire of romance alive and well. St. Paul tells us in his letter to the Philippians: “Don't think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing.” -- Philip. 2:4 (NLT)

A fourth key: Candy. This symbolizes generosity, and enjoying life, and resting. Treating yourself, being sweet to yourself – and then, also to others. This will help you overcome the slavery of hurriedness and always being on the run. Slow down. Even God rested on the seventh day, according to the Book of Genesis.

Finally, a fifth key: prayer, symbolized by the rosary. Prayer can help you overcome frustration by making you more aware of your blessings and more aware of the need to lean on God, not on yourself. James tells us: “Dear brothers and sisters, you must be patient as you wait for the Lord's return. Consider the farmers who eagerly look for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They patiently wait for the precious harvest to ripen….For examples of patience in suffering, dear brothers and sisters, look at the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.” – James 5:7, 10 (NLT)

We also celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe today. Mary appeared nearly 500 years ago to an indigenous peasant, Juan Diego, and to the Mexican people with a message of freedom and liberation. She came to unlock the chains of slavery and oppression that the indigenous people were suffering under the yoke of the Spanish conquistadors. She came as a missionary to the Mexican people to announce joy and hope and new life through belief in her Son, Jesus Christ.

The sign of Guadalupe is what? Right! The rose! [Hold up a rose]

The rose is a symbol of joy. It is a symbol of hope – of new life and beauty growing in the cold of winter atop that hill of Tepeyac. It is a sign and symbol of love – God’s love for each of us, God’s love mediated through the love of His beloved mother, Mary.

The challenge for us today is simply this: Are we a people of hope, and a people of joy, and a people of new life in Jesus Christ? Are we a people who love – love God, fully and completely, and love one another as brothers and sisters? Are we a people ready and eager to build a new and better world, a world as it can be and should be, rather than simply settle for the world as it is?

Advent invites us to trust God to remove the shackles and chains that imprison us – whether that be the prison and the world of addiction; or the prison and the world of anger and violence and resentment; or the prison and the world of false values and false priorities that put things ahead of our relationship with God and with others; or the prison and the world of rush, rush, hurry, hurry, where we are running so fast that we never slow down to smell the roses or to refresh ourselves or to reach out to help another; or the prison and the world of frustration and discontentment, where we are blinded to the many blessings and the beauty that God has given to us.

Cast off the chains. Grab hold of the keys of life, the keys to a new a better world. As Advent people, we are children of light, children filled with hope and joy. We bask in the vision of a new and better world – the world as it can and should be, not the world as it is!