As much as the genre is largely debased today, the Hindi film song comes from a respectable tradition of Urdu and Persian poetry. A feature of this poetry is its mystical dimension. This is to say, poems about the beloved, are just as much applicable to our relationship with God, who is, in fact, the true beloved.
Take some of the lyrics of film song titled “Aap Aaye Bahar Aayi” which translates to, You come and spring arrives.
sare jamane pe mausam suhane pe
is dil diwane pe virana si thi chayi
aap aaye bahar aayi
This world, this clime,
my restless heart, were all
a wilderness.
(But) you arrived, and you brought spring along.
Further verses from this song read:
aapka hi tha sabko intezaar
aap ke lie sab the bekarar
hawaye ghataye fizaye bagho me phule ne jhulo ne
li jhum ke angdhayi aap aaye bahaar aayi
For you alone were we all waiting
For you alone were our hearts restless
the zephyrs, the clouds, the climes, the bowers, the flowers,
all leapt with joy, for you arrived and brought spring with you.
Imagine this song was sung by St. John the Baptist to greet Our Lord, whose first coming we will commemorate in three weeks, and you see how this poem takes on a profound depth. The reason I quote this song is to illustrate a portion of the first reading, from the Prophet Isaiah:
On that day, a shoot shall sprout from the stump of
Jesse,
and from his roots a bud shall blossom.
Reflecting on this passage St. Jerome says, “The land that before brought forth thorns,” is now blessed. In turn St. Ambrose reflected: “The flower is Christ, who vanquished the foul odor of worldly filth, poured forth the fragrance of eternal life.” He goes on to teach:
When he blossoms in our land, makes fragrant the field of the soul, and flourishes in his church, we can no longer fear the cold or rain, but only anticipate the day of judgment.
My dear brothers and sisters, we must take this verse from Isaiah to understand how when this shoot, i.e. Christ, blossomed in our own land, it perfumed the territory that before the birth of Christianity on our shores brought forth only thorns. The Christian message transformed this land, the virana of the film song, and has made it attractive to the Gentiles, who flock to this land, as Isaiah prophesied:
On that day, the root of Jesse,
set up as a signal for the nations,
the Gentiles shall seek out,
for his dwelling shall be glorious.
And this prophecy is true of most regions where, thanks to the majority of the population embracing the faith, the Christian faith has transformed the land. Look at the flows of migration internationally. Look at the flows of migration in our own country! Regard the flows of migration to Goa, or indeed to those suburbs of Bombay where Catholics have traditionally been dominant. The gentiles are drawn like bees because they sense the fragrance of the bud on the rod of Jesse and, in some sense, have no choice.
Yet where the light of Christ does not shine through the lives of his members, the land returns to produce thorns. As God said to Adam and Eve after their sin “Cursed is the ground because of your works” (Gen 3:17). It is our works that cause the earth to produce thorns. One can see this in our unfortunate country, where under the banner of decolonization, the gentle yoke of Christianity is thrown off, and gentilism is once again rampant. We see the disregard for the dignity of the individual, and a falling of order into chaos. This applies as much to Europe, and the Americas, where after centuries of the effects of the French revolution, anti-clericalism, the assertion of the will alone, the celebration of the autonomous individual, and the disregard of grace, the lands that once shone with the light of Christ; that once perfumed the world with His Gospel, now lie in shambles.
In his reflection on the very verses that we contemplate in the first reading today, St. Jerome points out that
It is also to be noted that the lamb and the kid will not dwell and recline with the wolf and the leopard, but the wolf and the leopard will imitate the innocence of the lamb and the kid.
This reflection is not irrelevant to our contemplation of how Christianity perfumes the land. We need to ask ourselves, whether we are fulfilling our Christian duty of offering a model to the world, or have we conceded defeat and are we imitating the gentiles who surround us? In other words, are we like St. John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness? Or, are we not?
My dear brothers and sisters, I ended my homily last week with the suggestion that Advent is the period of penitence and waiting. We wait not for the Christ Child to be born, but for the second coming of Our Lord, this time in power. Recall the words of Our Lord from the lectionary a few weeks ago:
when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? (Lk 18:8)
The time of our waiting, my dear brothers and sisters, must be a time filled with good works – filling the world of Our Lord with His perfume. Good works that are carried out in patient expectation that when Our Master returns, He will be able to say to us, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave… enter into the joy of your master” (Mt 25: 23).
If we do not spend our lives in this labour, the warnings of St. John the Baptist in the Gospel today should give us pause:
Even now the axe lies at the root
of the trees.
Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit
will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
He will clear his threshing floor
and gather his wheat into his barn,
but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
We must, therefore, once again in the words of the Baptist, “Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.”
The good works we can produce, my dear brothers and sisters, is through our lives and words, sing of the goodness of our Lord to the gentiles we live among, so that they too might glorify God for His mercy, and be saved on the Day of Judgement.
St. John the Baptist, preacher in the wilderness, pray for us.
St. John the Baptist, proclaimer of Christ, pray for us.
(A version of this homily was first preached to the faithful at the Cathedral parish of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Old Goa on 6 Dec 2025.)
(Image reference: St. John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, 1750-80, The Met.)
