What must we do?

Today I reflect on the themes of joy and wonder in our lives. Drawing from my teenage experiences in Bega, where dynamic priests brought vibrant worship and transformative prayer groups, I explore how joy flourishes within our church community. Reflecting on Zephaniah and Paul’s letter to the Philippians, I emphasize finding joy even in dark times through practical actions and justice. John the Baptist’s call to tangible conversion challenges us to share and treat others fairly. By aligning our lives with God’s will, we create space for joy and transformation, dancing in His presence.

00:00:00 So, joy. And what does it take to actually fill you with joy? With wonder? It’s a really good kind of question to to kind of ponder. To look back at your own life and to think about those times, those moments when there was just this kind of bubbling away of joy within you, this experience that you just couldn’t kind of contain. I remember as a teenager back in Bega, and we had two priests in the parish at that time, and both of them were quite dynamic in their ministry, quite dynamic preachers, and both had been through the Charismatic Renewal. So they introduced a whole bunch of different things to the parish. There were new prayer groups, there were new kind of renewal and movements. There were opportunities to experience lots of song, and both were quite gifted singers. And so it was a wonderful time of experiencing just that sense of joy and wonder the beginning to bubble forth within the church and within our lives. And so it’s a good question to kind of wonder, well, you know, given particularly our first two readings today, you know, Zephaniah, it’s the final chapter.

00:01:24 It’s only a very short prophecy, a book of prophecy. And you think, look, this reading is just so bubbling forth with joy and wonder, you know, inviting us to dance before the Lord, inviting us to consider that God Himself will dance in our midst. You know, it’s an interesting thing. I don’t think too many of us have kind of experienced church in that light, in that way of having a sense of God coming here and dancing among us. And yet there is this profound sense that is there. And you might think, well, it must be the whole of the book of Zephaniah. The three chapters must be all filled with such joy and wonder. But no, it was actually written in a really dark period in Israel’s history. A time of great suffering, a time of great persecution of time just before they were going to be exiled. And so the rest of the book is full of of prophecies of doom and, and condemnation of all of the terrible things that were happening at that time among the people, particularly among the leaders.

00:02:31 You know, it’s always the leaders who are given the greatest shift. You know, they’re the ones who have to experience this challenge that the Lord is inviting us into. Anybody that has that burden of leadership, you know, has to know that we are the ones who first have to to walk the walk, to talk the talk, to make sure that everything there is this integrity in everything that we do. So, Zephaniah, you know, this is a real high point in the book, a moment of delight of of wondering what would happen if the people actually turn back to God, what would happen if they actually gave themselves more fully to God and to his love and to his mercy? The same thing in our second reading today, in the fourth chapter of Paul’s Pulls again short letter to the church in Philippi. And we might think that Paul must have been going through this extraordinary time in his own life, you know, again, a time of great release and wonder that it was happening. But he begins the letter by telling us that he writes this in chains.

00:03:41 It’s one of the prison letters, one of the times, the many times the poor found himself locked away, either in actual prison or in a period of house arrest. And so, in the light of that, for him to invite us into this experience of happiness, this untold experience of of rejoicing in the presence of God, you know, it’s easy to do that when everything’s going well, when you’ve just won the lottery or everything is happening well in your love life and all of the things that kind of coming together, you know, it’s easy to be joyful in that when the weather is just right, it’s not too hot, not too cold, not too wet, all of those kind of things that we want to be narrow down on. But Paul is able to experience this joy because he’s experienced that transformation Information that John speaks about today in our gospel. That realization. What must I do? How do I respond to God? I note there not things about well, go and pray some more.

00:04:43 It’s not an invitation to really an interior conversion. But first, this very practical conversion that John is inviting these people to, to change. Well, if you have two items of clothing, two clothes, well, you don’t need two at once. So give one away to the poor. Don’t exalt more than is your fair share of your pay to make sure that you treat everybody equally. Make sure that you don’t dissuade other people. Make sure that there is a sense of justice and compassion in all of the ways that you interact in the world. And what must we do is a really good question, because that’s lies at the heart of our experience of joy. If we’re able to open ourselves to what God is doing, if we’re able to experience what God is inviting us into, then we will find joy. We will find that life in that goodness present within our current experience. So let’s indeed kind of ponder that question today and go to the Lord and hear him ask you, you know, what must you do? Invite the Lord to really be there with you as you kind of ponder that and asking, you know, with a great sense of openness, Lord, what do you want me to do? How do you want me to respond today to this challenge? Are there particular people that I have treated badly? Are there particular attitudes that aren’t about justice anymore where there isn’t that profound sense of equality? How can I find this joy and this wonder? Well, by first living well, living right with our God.

00:06:23 And then there is this change in this transformation. Then we’re able to experience the the grace of dancing in the presence of our God. So let’s indeed open ourselves today to the God who is calling us to freedom and inviting us very practically, to do that in order that we can experience the joy of his presence among us today.