3rd Sunday of Advent B.  December 11, 2011.  Our Lady of Grace 9:30, 11:30, 6PM.  Isaiah 61:1-2a, 10-11.  1 Thessalonians  5: 16-24.  John 1:6-8, 19-28.

One day as a great king was traveling through his kingdom he met an old beggar carrying a large empty bowl.   The kings shouted, “What can I do to help you old man?”   The old beggar replied, “There is nothing that you can do for me, my Lord.” “What do you mean?” the king said.  “I am the king and I posses unlimited wealth and power.  I can give you anything you want.”  

The old beggar said, “Think twice before you promise me anything, my Lord.”   But the king insisted, “I will fulfill any request you make of me – I am the king.”  The old beggar said, “Can you fill my empty begging bowl with something?”  “Of course,” the king said while he laughed that the beggar would doubt the power of the king.  The king ordered that the old beggar’s bowl be filled with gold.  But the gold coins disappeared as quickly as they were poured into the bowl and the bowl remained empty.  The king became angry and he ordered more gold to be poured into the empty bowl.  But the beggar’s bowl still remained empty.  The king then ordered that all the gold in the royal treasury be poured into the bowl even though his counselors pleaded with him to stop.  The king shouted, “Even if I must lose my whole kingdom, I will not be defeated by this old beggar.”  The king threw diamonds and pearls into the empty bowl – and still the bowl remained empty.  The beggar’s bowl had become a bottomless pit.  Everything that the king owned had now disappeared in the bowl.  Now a poor man himself the king fell on his knees before the beggar and said, “Please tell me what was in the bowl that swept up and swallowed everything that I own?”   The old beggar said, “The beggar bowl is made up of the bottomless pit of human desire and human greed.  Human decadence, self-indulgence and human desires are endless, swallowing up and destroying everything that we have.  Those who rely on countless possessions and greed to make them happy will never find joy in life. In fact, they will be slaves to the things that they own.” 

In each of us there is a deep hunger for happiness.  We all want to have a good life.  God created us with a profound inner craving for more and more, empowering us to reach out for fulfillment and happiness. We are all on a quest for happiness.  In our desire to be fulfilled we easily turn to possessing more things, or more power or more fame.  While possessions can be a great blessing, they can also be an unquenchable passion leading us to spiritual emptiness and loneliness. God’s great saints teach us that possessions may in fact lead us away from the good life that we all seek.

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta – a saint from our own time in history - said, “A person who is attached to riches, who lives with the worry of riches, is actually very poor. If he puts his money at the service of others, then he is rich, very rich”.

Mother Teresa continued, “People who love each other fully and truly are the happiest people in the world. They may have little, they may have nothing, but they are happy people. Everything depends on how we love one another.”

"As far as I am concerned, the greatest suffering is to feel alone, unwanted, unloved.  The greatest suffering is also having no one, forgetting what an intimate, truly human relationship is, not knowing what it means to be loved, not having a family or friends."

She said, “People are hungry for God. Do you see that?  Quite often we look but do not see. We are all passing through this world. We need to open our eyes and see."

Our greatest hunger is to know God and to be loved by God, whether we recognize our hunger for God or mask it in our unquenchable hunger for other things.  Our hearts will always be restless and unsettled until they rest in God. 

“A man named John was sent from God.  He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.  He was not the light, but came to testify to the light.”  John said, “I baptize with water; but there is one among you whom you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.” 

Knowing Christ and experiencing his presence in our lives is the source of true happiness. Having many things is not a fulfilling substitute for knowing who we are in God’s plan, what life is about in God’s plan and where were we are going.  Knowing Jesus is the source of true happiness.  Possessing and being possessed by Jesus is the source of true happiness. 

In her last prayer for us Mother Teresa said, “I worry some of you still have not really met Jesus, one-to-one, you and Jesus alone… Do you really know the living Jesus - not from books but from being with Him in your heart? Have you heard the loving words He speaks to you...? Never give up this daily intimate contact with Jesus as the real living person - not just the idea. How can we last even one day without hearing Jesus say "I love you?" ... Our soul needs that as much as the body needs to breathe the air … The devil may try to use the hurts of life, and sometimes our own mistakes - to make you feel it is impossible that Jesus really loves you, is really cleaving to you.. (Jesus) is the One Who always accepts you. Only believe - you are precious to Him.”

For the wisdom to recognize that only Jesus can satisfy our endless cravings and make us truly happy we give God thanks and praise.