Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks.

 

Third Sunday of Advent  B  2023

 

This third Sunday of Advent is Gaudete Sunday -- Rejoice Sunday.  We light the pink candle of the Advent wreath.  We wear the pink vestments expressing that the joy of Christmas is beginning to invade the Advent season.

In ten words, St Paul expresses the theme of today’s liturgy:  Rejoice always.  Pray without ceasing.  In all circumstances give thanks.

My hope for myself and for you is that the joy of Gaudete Sunday is the joy that you experience everyday as a disciple of Jesus:  rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in all circumstances give thanks.  At every Mass, we begin the Eucharistic Prayer with the preface dialogue, we say:  Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

Today is Gaudete Sunday, Sunday of Joy. The Church asks us to be aware of the joy of the coming of Christ we will commemorate on Christmas.

The Gospel puts us in touch with our Advent guide:  John the Baptist.

 

Who are you?  The Jews from Jerusalem asked this question of John the Baptist.  As we pray over today’s Scriptures, this same question is asked of us:  Who are you?  After you give your usual contact information, the question is still asked of you before the Lord:  Who are you?

John the Baptist knew his identity.  He knew who he was and who he was not.  John said: “I am not the Christ…I am the voice of one crying in the desert, make straight the way of the Lord.”  John went on to say: “There is one among you whom you do not recognize.”

John’s mission was to help people recognize the presence of Christ who is in our midst. 

As disciples of the Lord, do we know who are and who we are not?

 

The gospel today challenges us to identify who we are.  As Pope Francis tells us, we are called to be missionaries of Jesus. We carry Jesus to others because we have been touched by him. We have been transformed in Christ. Christ’s love accompanies us in all we do. That is who we are. That is the cause for joy.

 

The question of faith for all of us:  Can we genuinely rejoice when we struggle with all the challenges that we are dealing with?  What if there is loneliness or anxiety in our hearts this Christmas season?   What if we have experienced a significant loss? What if the wars and the divisions that are so much a part of the world scene get the best of us?  We rejoice because God goes with us.  Are these just pious words or is this the truth of our life?

 

The mission given to us at our Baptism is the same mission that was given to John.   We are to witness to the presence of God in our midst.  In so doing, we rejoice.  We rejoice even in the midst of the violence that surrounds racial conflict and the threat of terrorism that we live with.   We rejoice because God is present among us.

 

 

 

 

But we get fooled because John the Baptist is in the desert eating locusts and wild honey.  He may not seem like a person with an infectious smile out there in the desert.  Yet, make no mistake about it, John the Baptist experienced the joy of knowing the Lord.  Joy is one of the characteristics of God’s spirit in the human heart.

So, we ask ourselves the question:  What helps us to recognize the presence of Christ that is in our midst?  Also, we need to humbly ask what blinds from recognizing the presence of Christ in our midst.  We might be so intent on something that we miss the gem right before us.

 John was filled with a faith-filled vision in recognizing Christ.  John lived his life deflecting attention away from himself so that the focus might be fully and directly on Jesus.  John had plenty of time to focus on Jesus because nothing else mattered to John.

May we in this Advent season exercise a John-like role directing attention away from ourselves and witnessing to the Christ who is in our midst.  May we find joy, Gaudete, in helping others recognize the presence of Christ.   It is my prayer that my preaching can help others know Jesus in their lives.  Yours is an even more important witness.  You are to preach without words.  How?  By a simple smile that communicates friendship, and in all the ways we wash the feet of God’s poor, we witness to the mystery of Christmas.  Our God is present to us in human flesh – in your human flesh and in mine.

May the Church of the Holy Spirit in this Advent season herald, give witness, give voice to the presence of Christ in our midst.  May our Advent attitude be: “Rejoice always.  Pray without ceasing.  In all circumstances give thanks. 

Today asks us the question, what is joy? The gospel is telling us that joy is to look at Christ and know he is there for us. It is to tell his story to others by how we speak and how we act. It is to take the focus off me and put it on the joy of living the gospel.

People all around us are poor today because they struggle economically, but also because they feel alone, unsupported, isolated and fearful.  We bring good news by our constant joy, a joy that comes from our encounter with Jesus and our mission to bring his joy to others.

. Be a person of joy today and have  a blessed day.