Year B
Discover the deeper meaning and connections found in this week's readings, through these great commentaries written by our priests.
Explore this week's readings and hear what God is saying to us through His Word.
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At a time when most people are focusing on preparing Christmas celebrations, the Advent liturgy invites us into the wilderness with John the Baptist. He is the voice that cries in the wilderness: “Make a straight way for the Lord.”
Our celebration of Christmas misses the point if we fail to welcome Christ into our midst. In the December wilderness of shopping centres and town streets, we are called to prepare the way for our Saviour.
John the Baptist gave his whole life to preparing for Christ’s arrival. He himself was not the Messiah. He himself was not Elijah, despite being a similar kind of prophet. He himself was not the expected prophet like Moses (Deut 18:18). Instead, he saw himself as a voice pointing to Christ.
To prepare the people, he offered baptism at Bethany on the east side of the Jordan. Pope St John Paul visited this baptism site in the year 2000. (This is different from Bethany on the Mount of Olives, the home of Martha and Mary and Lazarus.)
John the Baptist told the people: “There stands among you—unknown to you—the Saviour who is coming after me.” Sadly, this Saviour is still unknown to so many people in our society.
When he came, Jesus fulfilled the promise of Third-Isaiah, expressed in the first reading: “God has sent me to bring freedom to those in prison, and to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord.”
No wonder the prophet sings: “I exult for joy in the Lord, my soul rejoices in my God.” Our Lady sings a similar song of joy in her Magnificat.
St Paul in the second reading speaks of our response to Christ’s coming: “Be happy at all times, and pray constantly.” We rejoice that Christ has come among us to save us, born in the stable in Bethlehem. And our hearts are full of prayer, thanking the Lord for coming to us and asking his help for ourselves and our world.
3rd Sunday of Advent
Catholicism of the Catholic Church References:
CCC 30, 163, 301, 736, 1829, 1832, 2015, 2362: joy
CCC 713-714: characteristics of the awaited Messiah
CCC 218-219: God’s love for Israel
CCC 772, 796: the Church as the Bride of Christ
The third Sunday of Advent is known as Gaudete (Rejoice) Sunday, after the entrance antiphon for Mass: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say rejoice! Indeed ,the Lord is near.”
And this year it falls on December 17, the beginning of the second part of Advent, which is a kind of countdown to Christmas, each day having special prayers and readings, and special verses for the Alleluia at Mass.
These verses are meditations on the person and work of Christ, and through a variety of images taken from the prophets, express the illumination, the liberation and the empowerment he brings.
Christ is the rising sun, the sun of justice, the splendour of eternal light, enlightening all who sit in darkness and the shadow of death; he is the lawgiver, the Wisdom of God teaching the way of prudence to all whose mind is darkened and cannot see the way of return to their heavenly Father.
Again, he is the ruler of the house of Israel, the king of the nations, who saves us from the evil powers with a mighty, outstretched arm; he is the key which frees us from the prison-house of servitude to sin, and opens the gates to an eternal kingdom.
And he is the corner-stone of the Church, who upholds and strengthens all who are being built into it; he is Emmanuel, that is, God-with-us, a helper ever near, to the close of the Age. Here is reason to rejoice indeed. Amen, Come Lord Jesus!
Hymns are chosen from the Laudate hymnal
Come, thou long-expected Jesus 100
O comfort my people 99
Lift up your heads, you mighty gates 105
Awake, awake: fling off the night 851
Do you have questions about the liturgy and how we are called to participate in it? Explore how the Church councils, saints, and popes have answered this key question and many more.
Every movement of the Mass is rich in meaning but we can become over-familiar with it. Rediscover the Mass and explore how it relates to the Exodus story, where many of its rituals come from, and how it makes Jesus present to us today.
