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15 dic 2024
15/12/2024 - 3rd Sunday of Advent - Year C

15/12/2024 - 3rd Sunday of Advent - Year C

1st reading Zephaniah 3, 14-18 from Psalm Isaiah 12, 2-6 - 2nd reading Philippians 4, 4-7 Gospel Luke 3, 10-18

We continue to prepare ourselves to welcome Jesus, the Messiah promised by God to mankind: they are incapable of rejoicing and enjoying life, because they are incapable of gratitude to God and of communion with their fellow men. It is the effect of sin, present in various ways and with various degrees, to disturb peace and remove grace from hearts.

The reading from Zephaniah and St Paul's letter are a pressing invitation to joy, indeed, to exultation. That is why this third Sunday of Advent is called ‘Gaudete Sunday’! What the prophet and the apostle recommend to us today will later be summed up by the archangel Gabriel when he addresses his greeting to Mary in Nazareth.

It is time to lift us up from all disappointment and discouragement because now He who was promised is coming. He is none other than ‘the Lord in your midst... a mighty Saviour’! Those who realise that they are in need of salvation cannot but begin to exult with joy. The Apostle renews the invitation. ‘Rejoice in the Lord, always; I tell you again, rejoice!’.

How many objections to this joy! I seem to hear many voices rising to justify the sadness, the sombre tone of voice, the dark face: all the evil in the world near and far contributes to it. Yet there is not only evil in the world, and we in the world cannot continue to be witnesses to the evil that grips it and makes it sad: it is precisely into this world that Jesus comes!

Into the world he keeps coming, our friend and Saviour, the Son of the living God, the one who frees us from sin, the cause and origin of all evil, the one who will fill us with God's Holy Spirit and give us a new heart. Even in the midst of distress we know that there is someone to whom we can turn with confidence, and so our face becomes friendly, serene, capable of gratitude.

We, in the world full of dark and disappointed faces, are witnesses of the presence of the one who comes from heaven to make our land a place of peace, a kingdom of harmony, of communion, and thus of celebration, and to guide us safely on the path that leads to the ultimate heaven. We are witnesses of Jesus!

John the Baptist also helps and reassures us. First of all, he gives concrete and simple indications to those who wish to concretely dispose themselves to welcome the One who is coming, and thus to anticipate his desires: to share the earth's goods with the poor with generosity, to have regard for each person, to be content with the little: these are the steps of the commandment of love, which Jesus will perfect with his love for sinners. His advice is addressed to all those who approach him with simplicity and a desire for conversion: the crowds, the publicans, and even the soldiers, who are usually unscrupulous. These counsels, if lived, remove obstacles and make the heart ready and free to follow and serve the coming Lord.

John presents him to us with joy. He is a strong one, stronger than himself: before him even the prophet and forerunner stoops with utmost humility. He will use his strength to baptise us, that is, to immerse us in the Holy Spirit, indeed in his fire that purifies, warms and enlightens.

His words will be words of love for the poor of the earth, the foundation of all stable and eternal judgement. For it is he who separates the wheat from the chaff, it is he who distinguishes those who are of God from those who are unworthy of him. For the judgements of men count for little; human justice, with its delays, precariousness and injustice, continues to disappoint those who put their trust in it.

Who does not wait for such a divine man?

We increase our desire to meet him, and not so much and not only to ask him for benefits, but to place ourselves at his disposal. In this way, our joy increases to the point of exultation, because our life takes on a meaning and value beyond the most precious things in the world. Let us become true servants of God!