3rd Sunday of Advent

Friends: “Gaudete in Domino semper!” - Rejoice in the Lord always (Phil 4: 4). The Third Sunday of Advent opens with these words of St Paul and is therefore called “gaudete” Sunday. Christ urges us to rejoice because His coming, that is, his glorious return, is certain and will not be delayed. Are you joyful because He is coming to meet you? Are you ready for this definitive encounter? The Church invites us to be eager for His final coming, and She does that inviting us to gaze ever more intently on Bethlehem. Indeed, we wait with blessed hope, certain of Christ’s second coming because we have embraced in our hearts His first coming. 

The mystery of Bethlehem reveals to us God-with-us, the God close to us.  He is close because He has, as it were, “espoused” our humanity; he has taken our condition upon himself. Christian joy thus springs from this certainty: God is close, he is with me, he is with us, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health, as a friend and faithful spouse. I just celebrated a beautiful wedding of two of our beloved Focus missionaries (Tim and Emily). In their vows they spouse themselves with these “with you” words. God did the same with us when He became man, and again when you were baptized and every time you receive Him in the Eucharist. He is saying to you and me that our joy can endure everything, even trials and suffering itself. A joy that dwells in the depths of the person who entrusts himself to God.

As Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta said: “We wait impatiently for paradise, where God is, but it is in our power to be in paradise even here on earth and from this moment. Being happy with God means loving like him”. Yes, joy enters the hearts of those who welcome His loving presence anywhere and anytime, and put themselves at the service of others, instead of making an idol of superficial happiness. “Gaudete in Domino semper!”

Fr. Remi Morales, SCV