Third Sunday of Advent

V/​ I will turn to you O God, 

R/​ to God who gives joy to my youth

V/​ Give me the Wisdom that sits by your throne; 

R/ that I may be counted among your children

Lord, in your all-providential plan, you have led me to this moment to rediscover me in your Word and Wisdom. Aid me to make this time of meditation and prayer enriching, transforming, and liberating for my well-being and others. Amen!

THE THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT, YR C

Doctor of Detachment and father of the Reformed Carmel

Zeph 3:14-18; Is 12:2-6; Phil 4:4-7; Lk 3:10-18

We come to the Third Meditation for the Season of Advent with the words of the prophet Zephaniah writing at the end of the seventh century B.C. and ringing down to our time:

‘Shout for joy, Daughter of Zion, Exult with all your heart.’                                                                                               

The more we meditate on the mystery of the Incarnation and enter into the great expectation of the Church at prayer, our hearts are led to attune themselves to the deepest longings of humanity for a time of peace, of love and respect for every human being. St Paul in the second reading from the letter to the Philippians has a wonderful and encouraging word for us in this often-bleak time of the year: ‘I want you to be happy, always happy in the Lord; I repeat what I want is your happiness. So, God becomes a vulnerable little baby, at Christmas, to reach into our human condition with all its vulnerability and sin in order to heal and restore us to the divine image of our baptism and so to help us to reach that happiness which were created for in God.

The Gospel for this Third Sunday of Advent, keeps before us the person of John the Baptist, the one whose role is to ‘prepare a way for the Lord.’ So, he becomes for us a model and inspiration in our preparation for the Lord coming to us in our circumstances and lives. People from every background flock to the Jordan river and ask John for advice on how to live the new life he preached about. ‘What must we do,’ to achieve this? they ask.  We can ask a further question coming from the heart of the message of the scriptures, what must I ‘BE’?    All our ‘doing’ is achieved by the inner disposition we have to life, relationships and our work.  The divine child we are waiting for asks us to ‘be ready,’ to be disposed in heart and attitude to a listening and engaging with the Word of God, the story of Old Testament world awaiting the Messiah, and the fulfillment of this longing and waiting in the birth of Christ at Bethlehem. So, in response to the question of  ‘what must I do’, we can say firstly that we pause and take time to be with the Presence of the Word in our hearts, and this leading to a deeper listening that recognizes the inner call of God within us. This Word is in the depths of our souls, requires a disposition of ‘being’ and listening that allows the Word of God to be alive and active within us. St John of the Cross captures this disposition that Christ had with the Father as they prepare for the sending of the Son into the world: 

‘My will is yours,

The Son replies,

And my glory is

That your will be mine.’

All our actions and ‘doings’ springing from this disposition will bear fruit and achieve great works for the Lord. This will bless all our family relationships, our workplace and all our doings.