+ The Third Sunday of Advent, which we celebrate today, is GAUDETE SUNDAY, taken from the first word of the Entrance Hymn of the old Latin Mass:"Gaudete!" REJOICE!
There is an obvious cause for rejoicing as we make our way, week by week, through the Advent Season, that now it is half over – and the nearness of the Lord can be felt intensified (even if we know that he has already come so many years ago in the stable at Bethlehem, and is always available to us).
But did you ever stop to look at Advent from the opposite point of view, God's point of view; the God whose plan it was to reconcile his people by sending them a redeemer and Savior; who carefully and over o so many generations prepared a people and family to receive him; whose astounding love was the cause of it all and the impetus behind each and every meticulous detail. His perspective on this midway day of Advent is superabundant rejoicing that he is getting nearer and nearer to becoming one of his own creations while still remaining fully God. He is very excited about Jesus' whole mission to us. The first reading from the Prophet Zephaniah shouts of such excitement: Shout for joy, O daughter Zion! Sing joyfully; O Israel! Be glad and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem! The Lord has removed the judgment against you, the King of Israel, the Lord, (will soon be) in your midst, you have no further misfortune to fear.
When he comes into your midst, your Lord will rejoice over you with gladness, and renew you in his love, and he will sing joyfully because of you, as one sings at festivals. [Isn't that incredible – sometimes we think it a burden to sing our praise to God, yet he sings exuberantly of his love of being our Father, and our being his beloved, redeemed, children all of the time! That is amazing!]
And so today: let us rejoice doubly: as we think both of our joy and God's as we enter into the last two weeks before the celebration of the birthday of the central figure in all of human history: Jesus the Lord, the King, the Prince of Peace: God who became one of us; and let us reflect upon how God rejoices over us always– and then, let us act like deserving recipients of such a tremendous gift! Yes, let us love as we have been loved!
The best way to continue our preparation and to show that we really "get" what is going on in this holy season is to do what John the Baptist suggested in the gospel passage when he told the people coming to him at the Jordan River to repent and prepare for the Lord's coming: he told them, bottom line, to LOVE, to look out for one another, to share their belongings, to share their food – to think of others first. This is the best way to prepare for the coming of Jesus because we will recognize him as the one from whom these practices originate, for he is LOVE INCARNATE: LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP AND COMPASSION IN THE FLESH! And then we can see his glory and his light and his truth!
REJOICE IN THE LORD ALWAYS, for he truly does rejoice in you!
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