Reflection: Third Sunday of Advent

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Bible passage

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Reflection

We are over halfway to Christmas. Today, on Gaudete Sunday, we just begin to inch out of the half-light of Advent slightly closer towards the dawn. We move from longing to expectation, curating a more determined resolute, focused hope as we progress in our liturgical keeping of this great season through the prophets of the Old Testament, who hand over the baton to John the Baptist and the Blessed Virgin Mary, those hinges of our salvation. Slowly, our hearts are converted to the message they have been whispering to us.

The old plainsong introit for today begins with the words, ‘Rejoice Gaudete in Lord always’ from St Paul’s letter to the Philippians. He encourages us to cultivate a profound interior joy as we await Christ’s coming among us. This is neither a fearful expectation, nor a wafty hope, but the peace which ‘surpasses all understanding’ – a confident expectation that God will be faithful to God’s promises no matter what. This is the promise of Emmanuel – God With Us, the one who will come as a vulnerable child and show us the very character of God.

The period before the breaking of dawn can sometimes seem the darkest. This year, with ongoing news of international turmoil and injustice, the challenges of the climate crisis, and increasing inequality in our own country, we could be tempted to underestimate the gifts God offers us in Christ. But today we are called again to ‘Rejoice’, not with a facile grin which ignores hard reality, but with open hearts which long for and expect God’s coming among us.