The gospel reading for this Third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, asks us to behold who the Coming One is.  John the Baptist, who is now in prison, is hearing about the works Jesus is doing.  He seems a bit puzzled about who Jesus is and sends his disciples to Jesus with this question: “Are you the one to come or do we have to wait for another?” (Mt 11:2-11).  Indeed, the One who is coming will challenge our religious view of who God is.

And now listen to similar words from the epistle: “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Phil 4:4-7).  “Have no anxiety at all…”  “In everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.”  Sisters, note: we are to bring EVERYTHING to God.  We hear in other scripture texts, especially the psalms, that God knows the intention of our heart even before we express it…

We are given hopeful and evocative images from the first reading for this Third Sunday of Advent: “In my God is the joy of my soul” (Is 61:10). Well, why? What elicits this burst of joy? “For God has robed me with a robe of salvation and wrapped me in a mantle of justice” (Is 61:10). This is the promise of the Coming One. Salvation will be bestowed, accompanied by a ‘mantle of justice’. A mantle of justice covering our earth, falling like snow, wrapping us all in its power to heal and to change all of our lives. This Christ birth comes with the power for growth and change: it begins with each one of us, and it will happen in spite of ourselves!!! “As the earth brings forth its plants…so will the Lord God make justice and praise spring up before all the nations” (Is 61:11).

Image above:Masako Tobita (b.1954), Hampshire County Council’s Contemporary Art Collection https://artuk.org/discover/stories/millennial-pink-the-artists-who-got-there-first

‘Be patient’, ‘Make your hearts firm’, ‘Do not complain about one another, so that you may not be judged’…. ‘the prophets knew of hardship and patience’…These are exhortative words from the epistle for this Third Sunday of Advent…And added to them is the theme of ‘oice’ for the coming One is even closer now, our expectant hearts begin to feel the reality of God’s promise stirring in the silent depths within and without in the created world.

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 61:6-14
Mass: Zp 3:14-18a; Resp Ps (Is 12); Ph 4:4-7; Lk 3:10-18