THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT (2023)

THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT (2023)

Readings:

Isaiah 61:1-2a, 10-11

Luke 1:46-50, 53-54

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

John 1:6-8, 19-28

It is the second time in the church’s liturgical year, once in Lent (Latarae Sunday), and again during Advent (Gaudete Sunday), when the Church feels compelled to proclaim with any means possible the theme which should characterize our thoughts on this special day.  That theme, in both cases in spite of very different seasons, is the theme of JOY.  The Entrance Antiphon for the Sunday says it all: “Rejoice (Gaudete) in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice.  Indeed, the Lord is near” (a phrase from Philippians).  As close as we are to Christmas it might seem easy to feel that the Lord is near.  We need to remember, however, that Advent anticipates not just the Son of God coming into our world at Christmas, but it also looks forward to the Lord’s coming at the end of time.

Christian joy is not a choice between being miserable and being joyful.  Indeed, Christian joy is a permanent condition, a constant awareness of what God has done for us by sending His Son into our world that we might have lives that truly matter.  Joy comes with the assurance, as we sing on Holy Saturday in the Exultet, that Christmas celebrates the “night on which heaven is united to earth and the divine brought to the human.”  Christian joy is not extinguished by the tears that fall in moments of human sadness, nor is it diminished by the tragedies that afflict our earthly planet.  The kind of joy which this Gaudete Sunday celebrates is aptly represented by the Magnificat of Mary, which, in unusual fashion, is shared with us in the responsorial psalm.  It is a joy that spontaneously wells up from within and overflows in our entirety, “spirit soul and body” as Paul states.

Christian joy is nurtured by the good works that reflect the love of a generous God.  It has little to do with the fleeting pleasures of this world, and can only be found where truth, and goodness, and light reside.

With his diet and odd choice of clothing, we might tend to think of St. John the Baptist as a rather dour sort of personality, but I would like to think that it was pure joy which drew crowds to the shores of the Jordan River.  John was on a mission from God, and how could he “testify to the light” that was Jesus without that light shining through every fiber of John’s being.  Like Mary, John has to have been convinced that “the spirit of the Lord God” was upon him.  John was chosen by God “to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release” to those imprisoned by sin.  Once again, our gospel from John reminds us that John baptizes with water, but there soon will be “one among you whom you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.”  With such a mission, how could John not be the most joy-filled of persons.

Let us, on this Gaudete Sunday, and everyday, be women and men of joy, people who never lose sight of what God has done for us. May our joy-filled demeanor draw people to us, just as it drew people to the Jordan to be baptized, in order that we might give testimony to the “greatness” of the God we worship. Filled with truly Christian joy we will be ready to celebrate the Lord’s birth on Christmas, and we will be ready to meet Him at the end of time, whenever that may come.