Newman Catholic Students' Society of McGill University

At this time of year, people (excluding university students) tend to be full of joy. They are joyfully doing their Christmas shopping, baking, and decorating. They are attending Christmas concerts and parties, singing Christmas songs, and going on family outings. These activities bring one kind of joy, and I fully admit that they make me very happy, but there is so much more to joy than this.

As Christians, we are called to live a deeper joy – a joy that permeates our whole beings regardless of what activity we happen be doing. The Third Sunday of Advent reminds us why we are joyful. In the first reading this Sunday, Isaiah says that the Lord has sent him “to preach good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” (Isaiah 61: 1-2) Isaiah’s words are not empty platitudes for a dejected people. His words foreshadow the coming of Christ. My friend told me just today that Christ didn’t just come for all: He came for each. He came for the poor, the brokenhearted, the captives, and the prisoners. Even if we are not literally in jail or living on the streets, at times, we all fall into these categories. We can be brokenhearted when someone we love has let us down. We can be poor in faith. We can be prisoners of our own sin. Jesus came to set us free. Just as a prisoner who is finally released is filled with elation, each of us should also be filled with jubilation. The question is: how do we genuinely experience this all-encompassing joy and how do we share this joy with the people around us?

In the second reading from this Sunday, Saint Paul writes, “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1Thessalonians 5: 16-18) Wow, always be joyful! That seems like a really tall order. It can be extremely difficult to always be joyful, but Paul also tells to pray and give thanks. When we do these things, joy truly does follow. My favourite part of this passage, however, is the last line. It is God’s will for us to be joyful! This is a wonderful realization. Our desire to be joyful is in line with God’s will for us. We must simply open our heart to God and allow Him to fill us with joy.

Doing this can sometimes be a huge struggle.  There was a time in my life when I got depressed very easily. I didn’t feel like I had any friends. I felt like my family didn’t understand me. I felt overwhelmed by pressure of my own making to excel at absolutely everything. In short, I was miserable. Not only did I not see the countless blessings in my life, I had forgotten that there is always a reason for joy. God used a number of experiences to nudge/shove me out of my mindset. I soon learned that joy does not depend on the situation around me; it depends on my ability to remember every day that Jesus came into the world to save me. I want the joy in me to spill out into my interactions with everyone I meet. I believe that smiling and truly looking into people’s eyes is the first step to spreading abiding joy. This leads to spreading the Gospel because, one day, someone is going to ask what makes you so happy and what makes you so sincere. When that happens, I pray that you will have the courage to share the Good News.

Almost every morning, I read a letter that my aunt and uncle wrote for me before I left for university. They shared some very powerful insight that inspires me each day. I would like to share a few lines with you in the hope that it will inspire you, as well. “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year. … Just to be is a blessing. Live to be a blessing to others. If you live like this, happiness will find you!” As we light the pink candle on the Advent wreath, let it remind us to cultivate lasting joy within ourselves through prayer and thanksgiving, and to radiate our joyful light outwards so as to warm the hearts of those around us.

By: Katrina MacKinnon

The Gospel for this Second Sunday echoes a refrain that screams Advent—“Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths!” (And if you prefer singing to screaming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuUl522_8jQ!) Today’s reading (Mark 1:1-8) goes on to describe the eclectic sense of style, eccentric palate, and extraordinary proclamation of Saint John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ and herald of the Messiah!

Though camel hair apparel and locust breath may not conform to the PR standards of John’s time or ours, John possessed a rare blend of remarkable conviction and profound humility. He courageously proclaimed the coming of the Saviour while at the same time confessing himself “unworthy to stoop down and untie the thong his sandals” (Mark 1:7). Jesus captured this juxtaposition strikingly when He said: “Among those born of woman there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Matthew 11:11).

What are we to make of this perplexing figure, John the Baptist? What of his pitch to “Prepare the way of the Lord”?

We live in a culture of sordid self-promotion—elections, advertisements, the job market, they’ve all devolved into revolving around that terrible trio: me, myself, and I. The all-powerful Apple, the very company whose logo is the fruit by which original sin entered human history, is responsible for such egotistical products as the “iPod,” “iPhone,” and “iPad”! Soon enough some crafty competitor will begin marketing the “meRight,” “meBest,” and—most horrific of them all—the “meNoNeedGod”!

John the Baptist, in word and example, offers us a profoundly different path: the Christian life is not the way of self-promotion but of Saviour-proclamation! The ancient cry to “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths!” is just as relevant now as it was in first-century Palestine. Forerunners of Christ are as just as direly needed in our day as they were in John’s!

And who are the Johns of our day? We are the Johns of our day! How are we to prepare the Lord’s way? Shall we preach at street corners, sport camel hair, dine on honeylicious locust, and grow alarmingly unkempt facial hair? While certain male students on campus seem to have already mastered the facial hair bit, I don’t think the call of today’s Gospel requires any of these.

The first pathways we’re to prepare are the pathways of our hearts. How can we make the Lord’s paths straight in our world if they are not first straight in ourselves? When Mother Teresa was asked the first thing she would change about the Church, her response was simple: “You and I.”

This is the invitation of today’s Gospel, of John the Baptist, and of the entire season of Advent: “Prepare the way of the Lord”—and begin with ourselves. How are we to prepare the Lord’s way in a season of frenetic card writing, gift giving, well wishing, Santa hat donning, and eggnog chugging?

At the end of his inaugural homily as Bishop of Rome way back in April of 2005 (when most of us were still in elementary school), Pope Benedict XVI echoed these words across St. Peter’s Square to the young people of the world – to each one of us: “And so, today…I say to you, dear young people: Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and he gives you everything. When we give ourselves to him, we receive a hundredfold in return.”

When we allow our interactions to be touched by the light and life of Christ, we lose nothing of our own individuality or identity. Instead, these are fulfilled, uplifted, and given new meaning and depth. It is like light pouring through a stain glass window: the more radiant the light, the more beautiful the window! The more we allow ourselves to radiate the light of Christ, the more fully we shine and the more brilliant our beauty! This reveals the wisdom of John’s raison d’être: “He must increase, I must decrease” (John 3:30).

Prayer, reflection, repentance, Scripture meditation, and the sacrament of reconciliation offer us tremendous tools of interiorly preparing the Lord’s way by which we make room for Christ and make straight His paths within us. But this straightening of paths doesn’t end with our interior fulfillment or personal spiritual growth, it spills over to our relationships with our friends and classmates, our celebrations with family and relatives, our encounters with perfect strangers, and even our approach to final exams! Making straight the path of the Lord in our lives allows us to become pathways of Christ, by which Jesus is able to enter our world as He did two thousand years ago on that silent, starry night in a makeshift manger in the simple town of Bethlehem.

How about starting each of your exams with a short prayer? While those around you are scrabbling to fill out their scantrons and launch headlong into feverish essay writing, why not sit a moment, offer your efforts to God, and say a simple prayer? It’s amazing the peace you can find by preparing the Lord’s way! Or keeping track of your friends exams and texting them the day of to let them know they’re in your prayers? How about infusing a little faith into your Christmas cards? When we allow Christ to enter through us as His pathways, we lose nothing of ourselves but become more fully who we’re meant to be. We become bearers of the greatest gift we can offer, the most precious present of any Christmas since the very first: Jesus Himself.

Preparing the Lord’s way takes at least as many forms as there are moments in our day. This Advent, will we dare to make our moments occasions of preparation for the One heralded by John the Baptist? Will we make our paths straight and make ready our hearts for the Babe born in Bethlehem? During this beautiful season and always, let us be pathways of Christ by which the Lord enters our world anew.

By Julian Paparella

Dear Newmanites!

I hope you are all doing well! Lots of things happened during my exchange in the University of Hong Kong, more than I could imagine. Hong Kong is an exciting place and a fast-paced city. Soon after I arrived, I got a position to work at a lab as research assistant. My father also arranged a Cantonese opera performance for me on 31 October. Although I had lived in Hong Kong for couple years before and thought that I was used to this packed routine, this time I had an even more crazy schedule. Apart from school, work, and rehearsing for the performance, I joined the Chinese orchestra, choir, and calligraphy club at HKU. Every weekend, I visited my parents in Sheung Shui and went to church with my mother. I was baptised a few years ago. Soon after, I moved to Montreal and therefore didn’t have much to go to church with my mother. I feel that every Sunday when we are praying together, our relationship becomes closer.

Yet, the most significant event I have experienced in Hong Kong is “Occupy Central” or the “Umbrella movement”. Some major roads in Kowloon and Hong Kong are block by people who are fighting for universal suffrage. Luckily, everyone remained calm and thus no major casualties occurred. The movement has been taking place for 60 days. The most heart-breaking thing is that a lot of friendship and even families and marriages are damaged by the heated arguments and the different opinions arrised especially from different generations. I can only pray to God for guiding Hongkongers to a right path.

Yemina Chung