THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Called to Joy
On this Third Sunday of Advent the liturgy speaks to us, people who are too often so sad, of God as the Lord of the dance: the Lord is happy to come among us: he will dance with shouts of joy for you as on a day of festival. It is a feast for the Lord to be with us. Is it a feast for us too? Let us open ourselves to the joy of the coming and lasting presence among us of the Lord himself. He comes to us with his peace, his love, and his forgiveness, not only on the great feast of Christmas but in every Eucharist and every day when we are willing to make God’s love and peace grow in us and in our world. Lord, we are happy that you are here among us.
First Reading: Zephaniah 3:14-18a
So sing, Daughter Zion!
Raise the rafters, Israel!
Daughter Jerusalem,
be happy! celebrate!
God has reversed his judgments against you
and sent your enemies off chasing their tails.
From now on, God is Israel’s king,
in charge at the center.
There’s nothing to fear from evil
ever again!
Jerusalem will be told:
“Don’t be afraid.
Dear Zion,
don’t despair.
Your God is present among you,
a strong Warrior there to save you.
Happy to have you back, he’ll calm you with his love
and delight you with his songs.
“The accumulated sorrows of your exile
will dissipate.
I, your God, will get rid of them for you.
You’ve carried those burdens long enough.
At the same time, I’ll get rid of all those
who’ve made your life miserable.
I’ll heal the maimed;
I’ll bring home the homeless.
In the very countries where they were hated
they will be venerated.
I’ll bring you back home—a great family gathering!
You’ll be famous and honored
all over the world.
You’ll see it with your own eyes—
all those painful partings turned into reunions!”
God’s Promise.
Second Reading: Philippians 4:4-7
Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!
Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
Gospel: Luke 3:10-18
The crowd asked him, “Then what are we supposed to do?”
“If you have two coats, give one away,” he said. “Do the same with your food.”
Tax men also came to be baptized and said, “Teacher, what should we do?”
He told them, “No more extortion—collect only what is required by law.”
Soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”
He told them, “No shakedowns, no blackmail—and be content with your rations.”
The interest of the people by now was building. They were all beginning to wonder, “Could this John be the Messiah?”
But John intervened: “I’m baptizing you here in the river. The main character in this drama, to whom I’m a mere stagehand, will ignite the kingdom life, a fire, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He’s going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned.”
There was a lot more of this—words that gave strength to the people, words that put heart in them. The Message! But Herod, the ruler, stung by John’s rebuke in the matter of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, capped his long string of evil deeds with this outrage: He put John in jail.
Prayer
God, source of all happiness,
your Son Jesus Christ brought to us and to all
glad tidings of your pardon and life.
Our hearts remain restless
until they find rest and peace in you.
Let your joy be our joy,
your love be our love,
your acceptance of us be our welcome
to all our brothers and sisters.
With Jesus in our midst,
may our communities be happy
and be a foretaste, even in trials,
of the lasting joy you have prepared for us.
We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord. Amen.
Reflection:
Prayers and fasting are insufficient to prepare for the Christmas
On this third Sunday of Advent the liturgy invites us to joy. In the first part of today’s Gospel introduces three groups of people who go to the Baptist to have concrete directions for their lives: Common people, the tax collectors, the soldiers. They all have one question that gets repeated: “What should we do?” , indicating their complete willingness to accept the will of God. They have realized that they went off the road, and now is determined to change their life and therefore, seeks direction form the seer.
Let’s imagine that one of us, eager to prepare well for Christmas, asks this same question to those we consider “experts” in the field of religion, perhaps catechists or a religious or the priest. What would they tell us?
Common advises are, to help a brother who is in difficulty or to visit a sick person or to recite the rosary every day; or do some prayers or to go to confession. Of course, these are good pieces of advice. But the Baptist did not choose this path. Perhaps because the Jewish community was already doing them so scrupulously. Therefore, he demands something very concrete in the way of loving a brother or a sister.
To the ordinary people he says: “If you have two coats, give one to the person who has none; and if you have food, do the same” (vv. 10-11). Prayers and devotions are important provided they are not used as devices to escape the demand for sharing of goods with those in need.
We gladly gather to pray, to sing, but when we are asked to make ourselves available to the brothers and sisters and share with them the goods we possess … all our religious enthusiasm suddenly vanish. The Baptist is not so strict when he says: “If you have two coats give one to the person who has none.” But, Jesus will demand even more from his disciples: “When someone takes your coat, give him your shirt as well” (Lk 6:29).
Tax collectors approaches the Baptist, asking the same question. They are hated by the people because they collected taxes for the Roman and enriched themselves by extorting money from the weak and defenceless. The Baptist does not ask them to change profession, but not to take advantage of their trade to exploit the poor.
Do we act as “tax collectors” sometimes? When we do business or perform some services, if we demand a very high pay for our goods or performance, with an excuse that “These are the set rates,” we behave like the tax collectors. If we behave like a tax collector, we cannot prepare for Christmas simply by reciting a few prayers.