Rejoice! God Is Here!

Rejoice! God Is Here!
December 15, 2024    Third Sunday of Advent - C
by Dcn. Bob Bonomi

Where is God?

During Advent, we are asked to reflect on the three comings of Christ: the first, the coming of Jesus in history as Man – God incarnate; the second, God with us today – the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete; and the third, Jesus’ “second coming” at the End of Time - Christ in Glory.  And we sort of reflect on them in reverse order, with the first part of Advent oriented to His second coming and then, as we get closer to Christmas, shifting our focus toward the celebration of Jesus’ birth in time.  Of course, whether we look forward or backward, we always look through the lens of the Holy Spirit within us today.

You can see that if you pray Morning Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours. At the beginning with Advent, the antiphon for our daily Invitatory, except for feast days, becomes, “Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come.”  Beginning on the 17th, however, our focus changes to, “The Lord is close at hand; come, let us worship him.”

And on Christmas day, we will greet Emmanuel – God With Us.

Today we celebrate Gaudete (Gow-de-tay’) Sunday, the 3rd Sunday of Advent.  Gaudete means Rejoice!, and so we should, as we have passed the half-way mark of our journey toward Christmas.  We pause in our Advent preparations to remind ourselves of the promise of joy that is to come. We light the rose-colored candle in our Advent wreath, and we don festive rose-colored vestments.  

(Yes, these are ROSE, not pink. Like in that old 80’s movie, girls may be “Pretty in Pink”, but not clergy.  Besides, have you ever heard of “pink” wine?)

So, this may be a good time to ask ourselves – are we still excited about the coming of Christmas?  Are we joyful?  Or are we being worn down by the minutiae of our preparations and the false messages of despair that seem to come to us from every direction?  

If we are not careful, we can lose the joy of what we should be anticipating.  After all, we are surrounded by evil in the news – so why should we rejoice?  We know of friends and family members who have died and we miss those who cannot share the holidays with us – so why should we rejoice?  We cannot afford to celebrate the holidays in a matter that is being emphasized in the commercials we see and hear – so why should we rejoice?  We have so many things that are pressing in upon us – challenges to our health, our families, our well-being – so why rejoice?

And yet, that’s the theme of all of our readings: REJOICE!  REJOICE in the Lord Always!  I shall say it again: REJOICE! The LORD, our God, is in our midst even now; He has not abandoned us to our troubles and tribulations but extends His Love and Mercy with the promise of better things to come. Rejoice! Because God IS with us.  

What did the messages from Zephaniah, Isaiah, and St. Paul have in common today?  They all saw the bigger picture.  And their message? God is Near!   God is With You!   God is in your Midst!

In our first reading, the prophet Zephaniah encourages Israel to sing for joy and to rejoice in anticipation of God’s mercy, for “The LORD, your God, is in your midst…”  The people that Zephaniah spoke to couldn’t see what the future held for them. Written around 650 to 600 BC, the first two chapters of Zephaniah prophesied that Israel, by rejecting God, were going to suffer the Assyrian invasion, but chapter 3 concludes with God’s promise that He would remain with them and would restore their kingdom.  God loved them, He would show them His mercy.  And He did.

Isaiah, too, commands us to: “Shout with exultation, O city of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel!”  In the Responsorial for today, the prophet Isaiah spoke hope to a people in exile in Babylon. Yet Isaiah reminds the people of God’s promise that they would be restored to their land. And they were.  

St. Paul is even more insistent.  “Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice! ... The Lord is near.”

I love St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians, and in particular this passage.   He speaks of rejoicing and hope, yet he himself was in prison when he wrote this letter, either in Rome, or possibly in Caesarea.  Paul is fairly certain that his execution was close at hand, yet he was at peace with the Peace of Jesus Christ, which surpasses all understanding, and that through Jesus he had no anxiety over the problems that he faced. He keeps returning to the theme of joy and rejoicing throughout the letter, because of his belief in Christ Jesus, and he lived with the hope promised for the next life, despite the trials he faced in his earthly one.

Finally, in today’s Gospel, we listen to John the Baptist tell the people – US – about how we should prepare for the presence of Christ in our lives – to continue to live our lives and to carry out our jobs in honesty and integrity, with a charitable heart.  And despite his exhortations about what NOT to do, John continued to preach the “Good News” of the Christ’s coming.

All preached an attitude of joy in the LORD.  The evils of this world WILL pass away.  The troubles we face today we do not face alone.  Emmanuel, God with Us, is here, offering us love, mercy and peace.  May we accept that God loves us, cries with us, laughs with us, rejoices with us.  As hard as it can be, we need to accept that God is with us.  As hard as it can be, we need to share our joy with others.

I was once told that “JOY” stands for “Jesus, Others and You”.  It takes all 3 to be able to truly experience joy.  So, I shall say it again.  Rejoice!  Christ is near – let us go out and welcome him.  Rejoice!