Reading 1 Zep 3:14-18a
Shout for joy, O daughter Zion!
Sing joyfully, O Israel!
Be glad and exult with all your heart,
O daughter Jerusalem!
The LORD has removed the judgment against you
he has turned away your enemies;
the King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst,
you have no further misfortune to fear.
On that day, it shall be said to Jerusalem:
Fear not, O Zion, be not discouraged!
The LORD, your God, is in your midst,
a mighty saviour;
he will rejoice over you with gladness,
and renew you in his love,
he will sing joyfully because of you,
as one sings at festivals.
Responsorial Psalm Is 12:2-3, 4, 5-6.
- (6) Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.
God indeed is my saviour;
I am confident and unafraid.
My strength and my courage is the LORD,
and he has been my saviour.
With joy, you will draw water
at the fountain of salvation.
R. Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.
Give thanks to the LORD, acclaim his name;
among the nations make known his deeds,
proclaim how exalted is his name.
R. Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.
Sing praise to the LORD for his glorious achievement;
let this be known throughout all the earth.
Shout with exultation, O city of Zion,
for great in your midst
is the Holy One of Israel!
R. Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.
Reading 2 Phil 4:4-7
Brothers and sisters:
Rejoice in the Lord always.
I shall say it again: rejoice!
Your kindness should be known to all.
The Lord is near.
Have no anxiety at all but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God.
Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Alleluia Is 61:1 (cited in Lk 4:18)
- Alleluia, alleluia.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Lk 3:10-18
The crowds asked John the Baptist,
“What should we do?”
He said to them in reply,
“Whoever has two cloaks
should share with the person who has none.
And whoever has food should do likewise.”
Even tax collectors came to be baptized and they said to him,
“Teacher, what should we do?”
He answered them,
“Stop collecting more than what is prescribed.”
Soldiers also asked him,
“And what is it that we should do?”
He told them,
“Do not practice extortion,
do not falsely accuse anyone,
and be satisfied with your wages.”
Now the people were filled with expectation,
and all were asking in their hearts
whether John might be the Christ.
John answered them all, saying,
“I am baptizing you with water,
but one mightier than I is coming.
I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor
and to gather the wheat into his barn,
but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Exhorting them in many other ways,
he preached good news to the people.
Today is the third Sunday of Advent; it is traditionally called Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete is a Latin word, which means, “rejoice.”
When we draw closer to an important celebration or event, we experience joy and anxiety at once. Someone told me that he stopped sleeping two weeks to his wedding. Wishing the day would come quickly and also imagining how it will be.
We are called to rejoice today basically because we are few days to the celebration of the significant mystery of the birth of Christ (Christmas); Christmas is just nine days away. I am sure our children will relate finely with this.
However, we can take this a step deeper.
God is calling us to rejoice today. Many will ask, “Why will I rejoice?” “I am not happy,” “I don’t even love my life,” “I hate myself,” “Things are not working for me,” “I am in a financial mess,” “My family is broken,” “My children have abandoned the faith,” “I am wounded in the soul,” “I cry increasingly night and day.”
I want to state four reasons why you should pause and learn to rejoice in the Lord
- Rejoice because you have a God who loves and cares for you.
No matter what you are going through, do not allow the devil to confuse you into thinking that there’s no God or that He is indifferent. Do not allow your challenging circumstances define your faith, rather use your faith to modify and re-define your experience.
In today’s first reading, we have evidence of God’s love in the life of His people. They suffered indescribably in exile because of their disobedience. They lost their dignity, their identity, their spirituality and their humanity but God preserved their destiny as His people. Today, He announced through the prophet Zephaniah that the time of liberation, restoration and jubilation has come.
They shall return to their homeland, reunite with their families and be free again. Dear friends, even now in your agony, God is thinking of you. Rejoice because you have a God who loves and cares for you.
He is always in the midst of our situations – “for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel… He does not abandon us to face it all…In a river or fire, He is with us (Isaiah 43:2).
- Rejoice because you are alive.
Being alive means you have hope.
To this, some may object, won’t it be better to die than this life of misery. Then I will say to them, to be alive is better because it means there is still hope of restoration and the misery that many of those who have died are going through is not what anyone will ever desire. Job 14:7; Ecclesiastes 9:4.
When other candles are off but the candle of life is still burning, there is hope because the one that is burning can lit the rest again.
- Rejoice because your sadness is the joy of the devil and your joy is his sadness.
The tears of a Christian are the delight of Satan. To rejoice in affliction is to bring confusion to the devil.
No matter what, always praise God and praise him more when “the sun goes down” (1Thess 5:18). Praising God in distress is an evidence of faith and proof of unconditional love for God. To praise God amidst tears is a sweet “Magnificat” that shakes heaven.
In today’s second reading, St Paul says I want you to be happy, always happy in the Lord… Interestingly, he wrote the letter from prison. The torture, loneliness, horror, restriction and darkness of prison couldn’t take away his joy in the Lord and this he wanted to spread.
John in today’s Gospel rejoiced in his nothingness and exalts the sublimity of Jesus.
He was joyfully counselling different categories of people who came to him for baptism. If some of you had gone, what do you think he would have told you? “Don’t waste your life away in sadness, rejoice in the Lord.”
- Rejoice because there is hope of happiness for you after this world. That is where the prophecy of today’s first reading will be fully fulfilled. That is where our restoration and jubilation will be perfect. That is where we shall shout, scream and sing for joy because that joy will be total, absolute and eternal.
We are not people without hope. We should rejoice because God has given us the hope of eternal joy with Him when all our tears will be wiped and all our faithfulness in spite of pains and endurance despite discouragements will be rewarded.
Beloved in the Lord, the Lord wants you to rejoice.
Sermon preached by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Okami on Sunday, December 16, 2018