The Third Sunday in Advent
Year B

There was a Woman Sent from God Whose Name was Ann

Readings: Isaiah 61:1-4, 6-11; Canticle of Mary; 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-24; John 1:6-8 

Robert Fulgham, best known for his book “All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten”, wrote a very funny short story about vocation.  He relates that in his travels he often meets people who invariably ask him what he does.  What they expect is that he will produce a business card that explains his role.  That does not sit well with him, because it can never adequately express who he is on any particular day.  Today for example he might be a singer, although, he points out, people are more likely to pay him not to sing.  Then he goes on to say something very important for us to learn.  “What I do is literally how I spend my time.

He now has a business card, because he has finally figured out what to put on it.  One word! Fulgham! His name.  “What I do,” he says, “is to be the most Fulgham I can be.  I and you – we are infinite, rich, large, contradictory, living, breathing miracles – free human beings, children of God and the everlasting universe.  That’s what we do.” 

Vocation is rooted in God as God’s gift.  Knowing who we are, and whose we are, answering God’s call, can bring us to a true sense of joy.  It is not about a spiritual high, but about a joy at the centre of our being, which assures us that all the incongruities of life, suffering, despair, everything, is in God’s hands.  That leaves us free to be everything we are meant to be. 

That is what the readings this Sunday point out.  “There was a man sent from God whose name was John,” we read in the Gospel.  God sent him to prepare the way for the one who would come after, to prepare for the Messiah.  He went out into a desert place, a world in which there was conflict, evil, poverty and oppression.  He felt alone in his call, a voice crying out in the wilderness.  But he was a voice with a voice.  His was a voice to be reckoned with.  He called for repentance, for conversion.  His call went out, not to those you might think.  He did not preach a message to perpetrators of violence.  He did not preach a message to unbelievers.  His call went to the church going people whose faith called them out into the desert place in which he preached.  There they heard a difficult message.  John was sent to preach repentance.  His was a call to transform their lives, and through that transformation to bring about a change in all of society.  He knew that such change began with an inner transformation.  That always begins with understanding who you are and who God has called you to be.   

Some centuries earlier a man was sent from God.  God sends people in every age.  This man’s name was Isaiah.  He was anointed by God to bring good news to oppressed people.  They were a people in exile.  Many had lost their way.  They had drifted far from God.  He responded to the call of God.  He knew that he was called to a servant ministry.  He called the people of Israel back into relationship with God.  He understood his task to help people discover the purpose and vocation to which God was calling them.