Sunday, December 17, 2023
Is 61:1-2a, 10-11 | 1 Thes 5:16-24 | Jn 1:6-8, 19-28
I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul. –Isaiah 61:10
Eating locusts and grasshoppers, wearing camel skins, preaching repentance, living in a desert among wild animals, and facing a gruesome death aren’t images that provoke joy. Yet today’s readings, connect John the Baptist to joy. Advent joy, which asks us to step back and reflect on a different path to rejoicing.
I think of Gilberto who I know from Casa Betania, an immigrant shelter in Mexicali, Mexico, where I’ve been working for the past year. Tall, blond hair, blue eyes, from the Mexican cattle country of Durango, Gil fled due to his profile. A drug cartel asked him to transport drugs into the United States. They told him his complexion benefited him, made him more passable. They’d give him all he needed – driver’s license, car, documents. He refused. Another chance: lots of money. Gil refused again. Last chance: do it or die.
To save himself he had to lose himself; he fled to Mexicali, leaving behind two teenage sons. He found work at a recycling company that lasted four months. He went out on a truck at midnight to round up cardboard and finished around 9 a.m. He came to Casa Betania for breakfast. Gil told me that when cardboard is abundant, his round doesn’t finish until 1 or 2 in the afternoon. On such days, he arrives for the afternoon meal and makes $15 for 13 or 14 hours of work.
“That is a good day,” he said wholeheartedly. When I saw him for breakfast, his earnings were only half that. “Not a good day.” But he took it and often ate leftovers found in cardboard boxes so he could send money to his family. One afternoon, Gil arrived at Casa Betania and gave me a pineapple. Other than a few rust spots, it was in pretty good shape. I tried convincing him he needed the vitamins more than me. “I need grace more than vitamins.” He stared me down, eyes as big as craters shining with the truth that we are never more human than when we give.
The last time I saw Gil he told me he was returning to Durango. I tried persuading him to see an immigration lawyer, apply for asylum in the United States. He shook the words off, saying he needed to be with his family. In just a few months, it felt like Gil had become a lifelong friend.
His predicament could have made him ask: how can there be joy in a world so full of violence? Yet, despite everything, he is filled with joy, imbuing a well-ripened truth: “It is not joy that makes us grateful, it is gratitude that gives us joy,” writes Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast.
As I cut the rind from his pineapple, I thought of how Gil often whistled the song “De Colores.” The words filled me as I ate: “All the colors, all the colors, oh how they dress up the countryside in springtime… And that’s why a great love of the colors makes me feel like singing so joyfully.” And I give thanks for Gil’s friendship.
Richard Dixon, from Orange, California, joined the Maryknoll Lay Missioners in 2011. He serves migrants and internally displaced people at the U.S.-Mexico border with hospitality, mentorship and education.
The 2023 Advent Reflection Guide from the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns contains contributions from missioners around the world.
Featured image: An image is shown of pineapples for sale in Uruguay (Antonella Moltini via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Questions for reflection
How is God calling you into a deeper experience of giving and gratitude during this season?
Prayer
Merciful God,
Our history as human beings, and even before,
has been a history of life on the move. As your
sons and daughters, we continue to search for a
place to sleep, food to eat, and
families and communities to support us.
We are a people on a journey.
We are grateful for the earth that sustains us, but
we do not always take time to thank you. Also,
we lack compassion for our brothers and sisters
who have been uprooted by violence, natural
disasters and poverty.
Help us to remember that we are always on a
journey with them and with You, to a new way
of life in abundance.
Amen.
– Father Paul Masson, M.M.
