Third Sunday of Advent
(Gaudete Sunday)
Year A
Readings: Isaiah 35:1-6, 10; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11
Rejoice in the Lord always
The tone of today’s celebration is that of great joy. The entrance antiphon for today’s Mass says, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed the Lord in near.” We are in the Third Sunday of Advent and this Sunday is also known as Gaudete Sunday, the Sunday of ‘joy’. The readings also speak of this joy, especially the first reading from the book of prophet Isaiah, where prophet exclaims, “Let the wilderness and the dry-lands exult, let the wasteland rejoice and bloom, let it bring forth flowers like the jonquil, let it rejoice and sing for joy.”
As followers of Christ, we all are invited to experience the joy of the Lord in our everyday lives. And especially today we are asked to live this joy here and now.
In the Gospel today we hear John the Baptist sending two of his disciples to ask, whether Jesus is the Messiah. And, as usual, Jesus does not give a straight forward answer rather quotes the words from prophet Isaiah which are foretelling the Messianic age (Isaiah 35:5-6). The Messianic age is characterised by good times; time of healing and reconciliation, time of fulfilment of God’s promise of freedom and time for fullness of life. Somehow the disciples of John, or John the Baptist himself, were not able to see this with Jesus. Somehow they were unable to fit Jesus in their boxes of “expectations from the Messiah”.
It is an ongoing challenge for all of us as Christians, especially in today’s situations, where each one of us are challenged to give witness to the life and resurrection of Jesus. We are confronted when the ‘Christmas Greetings’ become ‘Season’s Greetings.’ We are dumbfounded when ‘Christmas’ is shortened to ‘Xmas.’[1]
Let us then prepare ourselves to this challenge dear friends as we are moving towards the great festivity of Christ’s birth. But let us not hasten to push our way of understanding of the reign of God rather wait for the reign of God to take its own time. The second reading makes it very clear and gives the example of a farmer who waits patiently for his crop to grow. Let us also allow God’s reign to take its own time, let God work in God’s own time and we, in the meantime, follow in the footsteps of the Lord in bringing joy and peace to our world, beginning from our own heart. Let this joy then spread to all the people whom we meet and eventually to the whole world.
This is my prayer for this Gaudete Sunday dear friends, May the Lord fill our hearts and minds with the joy of the Lord and may we feel the presence of the Lord in our life and in our family, and may this Gaudete Sunday bring real happiness in all that we do.
Amen.
[1] Xmas can also mean Christmas; but it should be pronounced 'Christmas' rather than 'ex-mas'! For more info see http://www.whychristmas.com/customs/christmas_or_xmas.shtml