The theme of our Advent homilies thus far has been patience. And we’ve spoken at length already about how it’s VERY hard to be patient… to stay the same person, to keep our peace, to be kind and loving during those moments when we’re stressed out, when things aren’t going our way, when we’re annoyed by something or someone!

Now we come to the Third Sunday of Advent — Gaudete Sunday as we call it — and we notice that even our Advent Wreath seems to be having a hard time being patient!

Look at that third candle!

It’s turning pink!

Well, actually…Rose to be more specific…

It’s as if the Church’s liturgy is getting tired of waiting, and the candles and vestments are blushing — they’re eager to start shifting from the penitential purple of Advent to the radiant white of Christmas glory!

But we’re still not there yet!

So we’re stuck in this sort of in-between stage — this mixture of purple and white — this rose. Everything in this Sunday’s liturgy — the prayers, the readings, the colors — are crying out: “Hurry up and come, Jesus!”

There’s a very ancient Christian word for this — an ancient prayer really: Maranatha! 

It’s most often translated “Come, Lord!” — Come soon! Come now!

Most notably, this Aramaic word appears in 1 Corinthians 16 as well in the Didache, a first century document that gives us an incredible glimpse into the life of the early Church, most especially its celebration of the Holy Eucharist.

Maranatha!

[Pray it out loud 3 times… louder, faster…]

It’s an urgent prayer of desire — a looking forward to the future coming of the Lord! A holy impatience if you will — Come Lord Jesus!!!! 

…But as Pope Benedict XVI so beautifully points out in his work ‘Jesus of Nazareth,’ this ancient word could just as easily be translated as “the Lord has come.”

So here we are again — stuck in that strange mixture.… That in-between moment…

We are living in the tension between the “already” and the “not-yet.”

Joseph Ratzinger (who would later go on to become Pope Benedict XVI) once wrote that this ‘already-but-not-yet’ is actually “the fundamental attitude of Christian living.”

One priest tried explaining this situation we find ourselves in using the image of “a football team who could win a football game before the game was even over.”

So… for instance, maybe we can think of the Kansas City Chiefs. Before the game even starts…long before Taylor Swift takes her box seats, or Patrick Mahomes steps onto the field… we ALL know that the Chiefs are going to win the game. Most importantly, the REFS already know that the Chiefs are going to win the game.

The script is written. It’s ironclad. The Chiefs have already won in principle…We might as well face it…

But still…. when you look at the clock, it’s not yet “zero.”

That’s what the “Already but not yet” of Christianity is sort of like.

I’m just joking, of course… and not without a bit of jealousy and bitterness as a disillusioned Steelers fan who is tired of seeing the Chiefs win all the time… 

But when it comes to the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ — this is exactly what’s going on: 

We already know how this ends. We know who wins. We don’t have to wonder. Unlike those mystery drones over New Jersey — there is absolutely no doubt, concern or confusion: 

Jesus wins. He HAS the Victory. He already died and rose again. And because of this, we can REJOICE! “Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again:  rejoice!” We can (as St Paul exhorts us in that beautiful second reading) “have no anxiety at all.” Why? Because “the Lord is near!” Maranatha! The Lord HAS come already!

And yet… we can look around and see all too clearly that the story isn’t finished yet. There’s still time on the clock!!!  And one day — the clock will tick down to zero. Jesus WILL come back again, and he WILL make all things new, and of his Kingdom, there WILL be no end.

Both are true: “Already” AND “not yet.”

Another really good image of the “already-but-not-yet” comes in the Chronicles of Narnia in ‘The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.’ If you’ve read the story, you’ll remember that all of Narnia had fallen under the spell of the evil White Queen — a witch who forced the land into a perpetual winter! At one point in the story — as soon as Aslan arrives on the scene, the snow starts to melt…

Now…this was long before Aslan sacrificed himself on the Stone Table.

This was before he came back to life.

This was before the final battle in the book, and before the four children reclaimed their rightful thrones in Narnia.

In other words, the snow started to melt well before the Evil Queen was officially defeated — It’s the “already-but-not-yet.”

This is what it means to be Christian — to live Gaudete Sunday. To live this “rose” — this “mixture” of purple and white — this “already but not quite yet.”

We are already dead to sin and alive to Christ by our Baptism…already risen with Him! Already somehow mysteriously seated with Him in the heavens places! Already transferred into the Kingdom of Light. Already saved… and yet simultaneously — we are STILL in the process of being saved. We’re not yet perfect! And as we talked about last week, we need to be patient with ourselves — We still struggle with sin on a daily basis…

Already but not yet.

That’s what I began to realize as I prayed about this weekend’s mass…. The impatience of this weekend’s “rose” isn’t the usual sort of impatience we feel when we just want to move on to the next thing — the next task — the next Sunday of Advent… We are not just being hurried along to Christmas.

No, it is a holy impatience! An enchanted expectation — MARANATHA. 

Come, Lord Jesus, come! And in the same instant… the same breath, we are also saying: “He has come! He is HERE already. The GLORY is here already.” Jesus — like Aslan — is on the move! And as proof… the snow is already melting. The Advent candle is turning rose! — “Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” 

Our first reading from the prophet Zephaniah said: “The LORD, your God, is in your midst, a mighty savior!”

In our psalm today, we sang: “Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.

Yes, He is among us. He is in our midst.

He never actually left us. His power is HERE. He is acting through the Sacraments and speaking to us through the Scriptures NOW… not just later. TODAY… not just tomorrow. Immanuel is God-with-us — not “God-was-with-us” or “God-will-be-with-us one day in the distant future.” 

No…

God-with-us. — In this moment. In this breath.

A few minutes from now, we will already get to taste Christ’s Body and Blood. We already get to share in communion with Him, with the Father, and with the Holy Spirit. We already participate in the Heavenly liturgy! 

Scott Hahn reminds us: “When Christ comes at the end of time, He will have no less glory than He has whenever He comes to His Church in the Mass.” 

Christ’s glory is here already…every time we elevate the Host and raise the Chalice. Every time we kneel in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament…

And yet we also know — there’s somehow even more to come. …There’s even more that we are eagerly (and at the same time)… patiently…waiting for — There’s much…much more to look forward to!

Already but not yet! — MARANATHA!!!!