Sunday 17th of December 2023 - Third Sunday of Advent – Gaudete Sunday

Isaiah 61:1-2,10-11/ Luke 1:46-50,53-54/1 Thessalonians 5:16-24/ John 1:6-8,19-28

Today, midway through our season of Advent, we are given Gaudete Sunday, a day to look forward to the celebration that Advent anticipates. While the secular world around is already in full holiday celebration mode we are eagerly anticipating the joy that will come with our Christmas celebrations. Celebrations that should not start fully until Christmas Day and will last until we mark the Baptism of The Lord on the 8th of January. The world will have grown tired of its seasonal celebrations by Boxing Day by which time we will have only just begun to celebrate Christmas. Today gives us the opportunity to rejoice in the fact that Christmas is nearly here with the promise it brings through the Word of God made human in the person of Jesus. The light that has come into our darkened world. Gaudete means rejoice and rejoice conjures up a feeling of great joy. This is the joy and happiness that we get from the coming celebration of the birth of Jesus and the hope that his promised return brings with it.

This joy we feel is not a passing feeling of pleasure that comes one day and is gone the next. It is a deep and lasting joy which brings inner contentment, peace, and confidence. Superficial celebration can be shallow with little meaning which does not last. The joy we feel from the message of Christmas is much more substantial than that and will bring joy even into the most difficult of worldly situations. I am reminded of the stories of the martyrs down the ages. Many of them suffered terribly in this life but were filled with joy at the prospect of achieving heaven by following Jesus through death into everlasting life. The joy that Advent brings, the joy we glimpse on this Gaudete Sunday, is a foretaste of the joy of heaven. It will cut through any of the pain and suffering we might have to endure in this life as we anticipate the eternal joy we will attain in the next. To mark this Sunday in Advent as different we light the rose or pink candle on the Advent wreath and the priest and deacon may wear rose coloured vestments.

The readings given to us today speak much about rejoicing, being happy in spirit and soul. The joy that is found in the coming of Jesus into or world displaces all human suffering and appeals directly to our immortal spirit and soul. This joy is a lasting joy that can make our pains, sufferings and worries of this life become bearable and even instruments of salvation if we offer then to God joining with the earthly sufferings Jesus bore for us in his passion and death. The earthly trials we must endure hurt only our physical bodies and cannot damage our immortal souls unless we fail to look beyond them into our life to come.

In the troubled world we live in the joy that comes through our Christian faith is much needed. We must become like John the Baptist and be a voice that cries in the wilderness. The joy that we feel and then proclaim to the world is not a passing pleasure but a lasting joy that leads us to exult in God and helps us to endure the challenges of life here on earth. This joy is not dependent on the ups and downs of everyday life, it fills our spirit and soul pointing us towards Christ and his promise of eternal salvation beyond our short time here. Relying on our faith we will be able to point to Christ as the one who came after John. Being close to Jesus we can be confident and at peace in this life, whatever it might throw at us, as we feel the joy that our anticipation of his return gives us.

The Gospel today is taken from the opening passages of John’s Gospel. John tells us that John the Baptist was sent to witness to the light. John was clear about what he was not and instead stated he was the voice that cries in the wilderness: Make a straight way for the Lord. Referring to Jesus, John proclaimed that there was one standing among them although unknown to them. Somone who would come after him and he was not fit to undo his sandal strap. Jesus was the light that was to come into the world. He was the word of God, the word that was God and was with God. The word of God that became flesh and blood in the person of Jesus. Born to Mary in poverty and exile.

The joy that Mary felt through this wonderous honour is expressed in the prayer we know as the Magnificat, used as the psalm today. Mary suffered much in her earthly life as she watched her beloved son rejected by the humanity created through him. She was with Jesus, suffering the way only a mother can as she witnessed his passion and death. Through all this suffering Mary was still able to experience the joy that the coming of Jesus brings. She could see beyond this life into the next. Mary glorified the Lord, rejoicing in God her saviour. She knew that because of her ‘yes’ to God’s plan for her all generations would call her blessed.

Jesus still stands among us and yet remains unknown to many. We find him in the poor, the broken hearted, prisoners, refugees, the sick and abused. Jesus is among us in everyone we encounter. It is up to us to point out the presence of Jesus to those to whom he remains unknown. We must become the voices crying in the wilderness. We are the witnesses to those around us. The joy we feel in the anticipation that Advent brings should be a shining light to the world. Let the words of the opening prayer to this mass be fulfilled in us this Advent, O God, who see how your people faithfully await the feast of the Lord’s Nativity, enable us to attain the joys of so great a salvation and to celebrate them always with solemn worship and glad rejoicing.

God Bless Brendan