Cooperation Sunday: We’re Architects of Peace
Baruch 5:1-9; Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11; Luke 3:1-6
On every side we look at, all we see is cooperation. In our first reading, Baruch cooperates with Jeremiah as his secretary (Jeremiah 36:4, 32); in our gospel, Luke serves as the chronicler of Jesus’ life and John-the-Baptist prepares the way for the Savior; in the second reading, Paul cooperates with the Philippians in the work of salvation. The fact that there are many of us on earth, instead of one person, makes it clear that God wants all people to cooperate with one another; otherwise, God would have created just one person.
What is clear about our number is that we need one another for many reasons, especially when we realize that we cannot survive alone or cannot take care of all our needs without the help of others. For biological survival, we need males and females to bring children into the world. On social levels, medical doctors are performing surgeries, engineers are manufacturing doctors’ tools for surgeries, and chefs and cooks are cooking meals for all to eat. Because we need one another’s help, we must cooperate with one another.
This Sunday is Cooperation Sunday, where no one is without importance and something to contribute toward corporate existence. Take the example of our first reading and the role of Baruch in it. The importance of Baruch is the use of his writing skills. Jeremiah tells us that Baruch is a scribe or his secretary. The word of God needs those who will write it down for future generations to access it so that it does not die via oral tradition. Thanks to Baruch, the good news of God’s promised salvation we are reading today is in our possession because Baruch uses his writing skills to write it down for us.
The message of Cooperation Sunday is the invitation to be instruments of evangelization by either speaking like Jeremiah or writing like Baruch. What matters is cooperation or working with others by putting our gifts at the service of God’s project of salvation.
Baruch announces salvation in human terms. Through him, God calls for rejoicing because the children of Israel exiled from home are returning home. This good news of returnee Israelites reminds us of so many people returning home for Christmas this year, despite economic hardships. In a larger context, just imagine the sorrow of the migrants and exiles, all those forced to leave their homes and serve as stateless and landless migrants in foreign lands, with neither economic prospects nor way of returning to the home they leave behind: how urgently these people need the good news of freedom and possibility to return home!
With human cooperation, the good news of salvation will be a reality to all our brothers and sisters on the margins of our societies, those who, for no fault of theirs except human inhumanity, are falling through the cracks. But with a modicum or scintilla of good will, you and I can make many people wear the laughter of and the reunion with their loved ones at Christmas by facilitating their joy of being invited guests at Christmas day table.
Cooperation Sunday goes beyond Baruch and the Old Testament. Luke, the author of our gospel, uses his writing skills to document both the life of Jesus and the ministries of Paul in his two books: Luke and Acts. In today’s gospel, Luke writes about a voice of peace, John’s message of preparation for the coming Messiah, the Prince of Peace.
There are two sides to the salvation history—Old Testament promises of it and its New Testament fulfillment. There are two stages to the promise of salvation that Baruch announces. First, it is about the hope of salvation, when it only consists of revised migration and Israel’s returnee exiles alone, but Baruch announces as well God’s universal project of salvation in the making, through the hope he gives and writes about as a source of joy and universal peace for his readers today. Second, Luke describes the joy present in Jesus Christ. Instead of hope and future salvation, Luke writes about the fulfillment of human hope for peace in the person of Jesus Christ. John-the-Baptist’s announcement of a general amnesty for every sinner, the forgiveness of the sin that hung over humanity, is the fulfillment of this second stage of salvation history. How would it sound like to have the debts of impoverished nations canceled out and everyone being able to access health care and food?
If Baruch and Luke display their writing skills in our first and gospel readings of today, John’s “cooperation” comes through the use of his voice in propagating the good news of salvation: “A voice of one crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The winding roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God”’.
Cooperation Sunday is the assertion that there are no excuses for failing to participate in the project of spreading peace and justice around the world. John preaches and eventually baptizes in preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ. John’s voice is distinct in a world needing a space for God. That voice encourages the rise of other voices today to continue to announce the dawn of salvation and peace in Jesus Christ.
In our second reading, Paul adapts the language of evangelization to equal right and equal access of all and sundry to salvation. Instead of “cooperation Sunday”, our second reading speaks of “partnership Sunday”: “I pray always with joy in my every prayer for all of you, because of your partnership for the gospel from the first day until now”. The message of Philippians is that human beings, you and I, have stakes in all that go well and all that is ill in our world. No one can afford to be sitting on the fence. In fact, the “partnership” or “communion” Paul talks and writes about in Philippians is our possession of salvation in Jesus Christ. We must share the free gift of salvation with others and not hoard it.
On this second Sunday of Advent, let us do something to make all around us experience peace and joy that our sins are forgiven and to celebrate the joy of returning to God as beneficiaries of salvation. Let us consider our opportunity to travel home as means to communicate God’s peace at Christmas to a broken world and to fractured relationships.
Cooperation Sunday makes it imperative for us to immortalize ourselves by making accessible to future generations the message of salvation. Just imagine how long ago Baruch and Luke used their gifts as services to the good news, and we are beneficiaries of their sacrifices and magnanimity today! The least we can do is to become other voices like John’s, other writers like Luke and Baruch, and other partners of the good news like Paul and the Philippians.
Assignment for the Week :
Buy a surprise Christmas gift for somebody.