Sunday, December 11, 2022
Third Sunday of Advent
First Reading: ISAIAH 35:1-6, 10
Responsorial Psalm: PSALMS 146:6-10
Second Reading: JAMES 5:7-10
Gospel: MATTHEW 11:2-11
The mood of our celebration today is joy. The entrance antiphon says, rejoice! Why must we rejoice? Because the Lord is near. The first reading today describes how the earth will rejoice when the Lord comes to save his people. The context like last Sunday is he Babylonian exile in the 6th century BC.
When God saved Israel from slavery in Egypt, He visited the oppressors with punishment for their hard-heartedness by means of plagues and finally smote the first-born of the Egyptians and drowned their army in the sea. He then led them through the desert to the promised land. With the passage of time, Israel became unfaithful to God. As a consequence God allowed them to be defeated in battle by the Babylonians and taken into slavery. The Exodus from Egypt became the prototype of all God’s saving interventions on behalf of His people. And the prophets began to talk about the day of salvation in terms of a new Exodus when God will again intervene as He did in the Exodus, saving His people and punishing their oppressors.
Thus, announcing the salvation of God which is about to happen, Isaiah presents a hymn celebrating Zion, the Holy City. He gives us the picture of a restored Jerusalem in a language reminiscent of the presence of God during the Exodus when God came with vindication and recompense. That is a message of consolation and joyful hope because God’s saving intervention is about to happen. He will vindicate His people and punish their oppressors.
The Church uses this passage on the third Sunday of Advent, Circle A, to call us to hope and to joy because God is near. In a world of trials, as the faithful journey through a world that is more and more anti-Gospel and anti-church, God is near. He comes to bring salvation. He will come with vindication and recompense.
Isaiah also talked about the miracles that will characterize the messianic era. When John the Baptist sent a delegation to ask Jesus, “are you he who is to come or are we to wait for another?” Jesus responded by assuring them that He is indeed the one John spoke about. He points to the manifest signs of the messiah: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear and the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. He is the fulfilment of the prophesies of old. The miracles worked by Jesus demonstrate that the moment of the true redemption foreseen by Isaiah has come.
The second reading form the Letter of St. James tells us how we are to wait for the coming of the Lord. We are to be patient, we are to make our hearts firm and avoid complaining about one another because the coming of the Lord is at hand.
Let us pray that the nearness of Christmas and indeed the Lord, will fill us with new hope and joy so that even in the face of the greatest difficulties, we maybe strengthened and filled with the joy necessary to receive the Lord who comes with humility, kindness and mercy.
Happy Sunday
Fr Chidi Onwuka m.ss.cc.