3rd
Sunday of Advent (Year A)
('GAUDETE
SUNDAY' or 'ROSE SUNDAY')
First
Reading: Isaiah 35:1-6a, 10
Second Reading: James
5:7-10 Gospel Reading:
Matthew 11:2-11
“REJOICE IN
THE LORD ALWAYS; AGAIN I SAY REJOICE! THE LORD IS NEAR.”
When
Einstein fled Nazi Germany, he came to America and bought an old
two-story house within walking distance of Princeton University.
There he entertained some of the most distinguished people of his day
and discussed with them issues as far ranging as physics to human
rights.
But
Einstein had another frequent visitor. She was not, in the world's
eyes, an important person like his other guests. She was a
ten-year-old girl named Emmy. Emmy heard that a very kind man who
knew a lot about mathematics had moved into her neighborhood. Since
she was having trouble with her fifth-grade arithmetic, she decided
to visit the man down the block and see if he would help her with her
problems. Einstein was very willing and explained everything to her
so that she could understand it. He also told her she was welcome to
come anytime she needed help.
A
few weeks later, one of the neighbors told Emmy's mother that Emmy
was often seen entering the house of the world-famous physicist.
Horrified, she told her daughter that Einstein was a very important
man, whose time was very valuable, and he couldn’t be bothered with
the problems of a little schoolgirl. And then she rushed over to
Einstein’s house, and when Einstein answered the door, she started
trying to blurt out an apology for her daughter's intrusion – for
being such a bother. But Einstein cut her off. He said, “She
has not been bothering me! When a child finds such joy in learning,
then it is my joy to help her learn!
Please don’t stop Emmy from coming to me with her school problems.
She is welcome in this house anytime.”
Yes, if it is joy for us
to welcome Jesus into our hearts today, then it is Jesus' joy to
welcome us into his Father's house at the end of times.
We
are in the Holy Season of Advent and it is basically a
penitential period. And therefore, the color of the
vestments, as in Lent, is purple or violet. It is a time when
we are invited through prayer and fasting or some other form of
self-denial to prepare ourselves to celebrate Christmas by a genuine
experience of repentance and renewal. However, in Advent as in Lent,
the Church cannot refrain from 'jumping the
gun,' so to speak, by anticipating, if only briefly, the
coming mood of celebration.
Now,
today is the 3rd Sunday of Advent. In the tradition of the
Liturgical calendar, the 3rd Sunday in Advent is often called
“Gaudete Sunday.” 'Gaudete'
means
'rejoice'
in
Latin. It comes from the first word of today's Entrance antiphon.
Having passed the midpoint of Advent, our
joy
gets more
and more intense
as
we advance
in our journey of faith. The spirit of joy that begins this week
comes from the words of St. Paul, “Rejoice
in the Lord always and again I say rejoice! The Lord is near.” This
joyful spirit is marked by the
third candle
of our Advent wreath, which is 'rose
colored,'
and the 'rose
colored'
vestments are often used at the Eucharist, because they represent a
lightening of the dark violet of the rest of the penitential season
of Advent. They remind us of the color of the sky
at the very brink
of morning, when the sun is just beginning to come up. The horizon
takes on a pale
rose color
that gradually gets redder
and brighter
as the sun rises. For faithful Christians, life
is like a “long
sunrise,”
and death
is the entrance into the bright, “everlasting
day”
of eternal life. This is the reason why this Sunday is also called
“Rose Sunday.”
The
liturgical texts of this Third Sunday of Advent are about the
coming of the Messiah
and they are a
hymn of joy.
In the First Reading the prophet Isaiah announces that he
will come;
In the Gospel Reading the Evangelist Matthew tells us that he
has come;
And in the Second Reading the Apostle James tells us that he
will come again.
All the three Scripture Readings give the message of hope that fills
us with joy. Joy is the theme of today and therefore we gladly say,
“Rejoice
in the Lord always and again I say rejoice! The Lord is near.”
“REJOICE
WITH JOYFUL SONG! HERE IS YOUR GOD, HE COMES TO SAVE YOU.” :
In
the First Reading of today from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, we
have a Messianic
prophesy
and it is bursting at the seams with joy.
It echoes the anticipation of God’s chosen people. The Jews in
Exile are experiencing the harshness of God's anger. In the midst of
catastrophe, Isaiah proclaims hope
and it gives us the vision of what this joy, this
salvation will look like. Isaiah is
particularly moving and beautiful in the imagery that he uses to
portray the coming of our God. Israel´s return from exile reflects a
second Exodus, a deliverance whereby God 'comes
with vindication.'
The Almighty has ransomed his people again. Isaiah depicts the joyful
advent of the Lord as a healing, transforming event that affects both
creation and humankind. The healing
of the parched land and the blooming of the desert express the
newness and glory that the advent of God would bring. In particular
we have the images of physical healing that God will come to bring –
once more the weak hands and feeble knees will be made strong, the
blind will see again, the deaf will hear again, the lame will walk
again and the dumb will speak again. There will be no more sorrow or
mourning because our God is coming to take all that away. Through
all these liberating actions, the glory
of the Lord is being revealed for all to see. These actions
are referenced in today’s gospel as Matthew seeks to identify and
explain the saving and liberating purpose of Jesus’ Messiah-ship.
“ARE
YOU THE ONE WHO IS TO COME, OR SHOULD WE LOOK FOR ANOTHER?”:
In
the Gospel Reading of today taken from St. Matthew we find ourselves
at the mid-point in Jesus’ ministry. This passage given to us is
about discovering the identity of Jesus as well as that of John the
Baptist. We find John the Baptist in prison. He has been arrested for
denouncing King Herod Antipas for divorcing his wife and marrying
his brother's wife afterward.
a)
“Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?”
While
in prison, John hears about things Jesus has been doing, but he has
not personally witnessed them. And what hears is the complete
opposite of what he thought about the Messiah. John knows that he is
the precursor to the Messiah and he does not fully know that Jesus is
the real Messiah. From
his prison cell, John seeks a word of assurance. To clear his doubt,
he sends some of his disciples to Jesus with a
question, “Are
you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?”
The question that John
the Baptist sends
from prison intrigues us. Did he harbor doubts about whether Jesus
was the Messiah? Or was he asking for the sake of his own disciples?
After all, he had already proclaimed Jesus at the River Jordan and
said he was not worthy to unloose the thongs of Jesus’ sandals. It
is also possible that John too was expecting a messiah who was more
aggressive than Jesus was. Jesus did not do that nor did he fulfill
other commonly held expectations about which the Messiah would be and
what he would do.
b)
“Go and tell John what you hear and see.”
John
might have expected a straightforward reply.
But Jesus does not offer a clear yes or no
response to John’s question. Instead, drawing mostly from the
Prophet Isaiah which we hear in the First Reading today, Jesus
describes the Messianic age as having begun with his preaching and
his works. He informs the disciples of John to go back and tell what
they heard and saw namely, the blind have their sight restored, the
lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are
raised to life and the Good News is being proclaimed to the poor.
They are to identify the Messiah through his word and deeds. Indeed,
Jesus' miracles of healing have attracted great public attention and
have given the people a sense of great joy and hope, an enduring
theme of Advent.
c)
“And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.”
John
the Baptist had been expecting a violent judgment day. It would be
initiated by the coming Messiah with fire. He must have been amazed
and confused when the pacifist Jesus did not match his expectations.
But more than just making John re-examine his understanding of the
Messiah, Jesus wanted Him to consider his healing and preaching of
the good news to the poor as his credentials for being the Messiah.
For in these messianic acts the prophecies were being fulfilled and
thus the time of salvation was at hand. This is the reason why Jesus
further added, "Blessed
is the one who takes no offense at me."
The message of Jesus to John is, ‘Yes
I am indeed the Messiah. But please do not loose faith in me if all
your expectations are not met; open your generous heart to the ways
of God that define Israel’s faith, and you will recognize that I am
truly the one who was to come.’
d)
“What did you go out to the desert to see?”
After
establishing his own identity and what might have seemed like a
rebuke to John the Baptist, Jesus offers a strong affirmation. There
are a few men to whom Jesus paid so tremendous a tribute as he did to
John the Baptist. Jesus says that John was a
prophet and yet more than a prophet. He is not a "reed
shaken by the wind," nor 'someone
dressed in fine clothes,' that is, one swayed by earthly
comforts or diverted from the path of discipline. Rather, Jesus views
John as the great prophet of Isaiah who preaches repentance to Israel
in the spirit of Elijah and offers God's faithful remnant a final
opportunity for salvation. Making reference to the prophet Malachi,
Jesus declares that John is the precursor to the Messiah. Malachi
said this in reference to the role of Elijah who was to return before
the coming of the final time. John now assumes that role. John the
Baptist is presented by Jesus as one of the greatest persons ever
born. Jesus
climaxes his praise of John by pronouncing 'of
all the children born of women, a greater than John the Baptist has
never been seen.' This
recognizes John as the greatest of the Old Covenant prophets.
“BE
PATIENT BROTHERS AND SISTERS, UNTIL THE COMING OF THE LORD.”:
The
Second Reading of today from the Letter of St. James reminds
Christians to be patient until the second and final coming of the
Lord, at the end of times. He tells them that waiting for Christ’s
coming requires patience. He asks them to have patience that does not
lose hope, no matter how hard is the situation. The Lord’s coming
is likened to the 'precious fruit of the
earth' patiently awaited by the farmer. The mystery of the
Lord’s coming, with its fruit of 'healing
joy,' unfolds slowly and progressively in the vast field
of salvation history. As the farmer patiently waits for the autumn
and spring rains and the precious crops that the watered earth would
bring, so too we must keep our hopes high and be patient till the
Lord is come.
Patience! Perseverance!
That’s the theme. Too often, patience
is thought of as a passive posture toward life which is assumed by
the person who thinks he/she has exhausted all his/her other options
and has no choice but to be resigned to a given situation. On the
contrary, patience is a passion motivated by love and expressed in
endurance. James’
words continue to speak a wise and practical lesson for believers.
He asks for a patience that is strong and at the same time gentle. It
is a patience that is not supine and passive but very active. It is a
patience that manifests a quiet, everyday sort of strength. Today we
are reminded to be patient people, viz. passionately motivated by
love and willing to endure until the Lord
comes.
CONCLUSION:
“Rejoice
in the Lord always and again I say rejoice! The Lord is near.”
There
is such beauty and richness in the Scripture Readings chosen for this
second Sunday of Advent. The theme is twofold: God is coming to save
us, so, we must be filled with joy
and must patiently
prepare ourselves for the arrival by repenting and turning ourselves
around. Our Advent is both a nostalgic event and one which also looks
forward to a future glory.
In this Advent season of
grace, we are being asked to focus on the messianic signs of healing
and goodness that surround us. The Advent liturgy of today invites us
to open our hearts to the 'miracles of life'
wrought by Jesus Christ. They give us great comfort and joy and
enable us to experience an exquisite flowering in the desert of our
soul if only we are open to grace. As
people of Advent expectation, today we are called to be sensitive to
the mystery of the 'healing
joy'
and to be efficacious bearers of Christian joy. As the Opening Prayer
suggests, we need to 'experience
the joy of salvation'
– that power of healing and wholeness which Jesus can bring into
our lives. This is something each one of us has to do and what we as
a community also have to do. And this is the Good News of today.
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