Joy to be a witness of union

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to life giving witness to the joy of living in a time of Jubilee as Jesus is united with us.

Today is the Third Sunday of Advent - Gaudete Sunday. The Rose candle is lit this Sunday on the Advent wreath in joy that the birth of Jesus draws nearer. #advent pic.twitter.com/ND5wa04D0d

— CatholicBishops (@CatholicBishops) December 17, 2017

The book of the Prophet Isaiah expresses the new life of the restored Zion in nuptial and agricultural imagery.

* [61:10–11] The new life of the restored Zion is expressed in nuptial (cf. also 62:5) and agricultural (cf. v. 3; 60:21) imagery.

Paul encourages buoyant charismatic freedom in his First Letter to the Thessalonians.

* [5:19–21] Paul’s buoyant encouragement of charismatic freedom sometimes occasioned excesses that he or others had to remedy (see 1 Cor 14; 2 Thes 2:1–15; 2 Pt 3:1–16).

In the Gospel from John, the role of John the Baptist as humble witness to Jesus is declared.

* [1:23] This is a repunctuation and reinterpretation (as in the synoptic gospels and Septuagint) of the Hebrew text of Is 40:3 which reads, “A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the Lord.”

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Cindy Costanzo is grateful and joyful and knows God is with her always.

Dries van den Akker SJ explores the strange witness of John The Baptist that the feast of Christmas tells us that God enters into our history from his way of ‘béing’, to make clear to us that his everlasting light shines in the darkness of our world.

It is a pity that the reading of today begins with the historical ‘happening’ of John the Baptist. Now we don’t hear that this ‘happening’ is framed by God’s ‘béing’. That our history is framed by God’s ‘béing’. That the feast of Christmas tells us that God enters into our history from his way of ‘béing’, to make clear to us that his everlasting light shines in the darkness of our world. Also today. And that we - in our historical way of ‘happening’ - are invited to see it with the eyes of our faith. That we have to be reborn from above (cf. John 3:03).

Peter Edmonds SJ comments on the Gospel texts mentioning John the Baptist in Advent. He notes that the Gospel according to John wants to convince us of the Christian need to witness.

The humility of John is a challenge to everyone with a part to play in the mission of the Church, but it is no passive humility. Whoever wrote the gospel according to John was quite convinced of the Christian need to witness. This is what the community does at the beginning of the first letter of John: ‘We declare to you what we have seen and heard’ (I John 1:3). May the Christian communities of today continue this mission of witness in a hostile and unbelieving world.

Don Schwager offers a prayer to be a faithful witness of the joy of the Gospel.

"Lord Jesus, make me a herald of your word of truth and grace. Help me to be a faithful witness of the joy of the Gospel and to point others to you as John did through his testimony."

Friar Jude Winkler identifies the role of the Spirit in the hope expressed by in Trito-Isaiah and the parenesis of Paul to the Thessalonians. The matrimonial imagery of the humility expressed by John the Baptist is connected to the marriage of Jesus to the Church, Friar Jude explains.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, offers a critique of how a too prevalent Christian goal of getting to a marriage feast in heaven may have resulting in our living the joy of union with Jesus today.

We came from God and we will return to God. Everything in-between is a school toward conscious loving. As theologian Charles Williams (1886-1945) said, the “master idea” of Christianity is co-inherence. “You already know the Spirit of Truth; the Spirit is with you and in you!” (John 14:17). God is your deepest desiring. But it takes a long time to allow, believe, trust, and enjoy such a wonderful possibility. We move toward union by desiring union. We move into heaven by desiring heaven now. So just pray for the desire to desire union. Then the actions will take care of themselves.

The joy of our inclusion in the people of God prompts our witness as a disciple of Jesus to the Good News.