Homily for 3d Sunday of Lent

Homily for the
3d Sunday of Advent

Dec. 15, 2024
Zeph 3: 14-18
Phil 4: 4-7
Luke 3: 10-18
The Fountains, Tuckahoe, N.Y.
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx        
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

The 3d Sunday of Advent has been known for centuries as Gaudete Sunday because the antiphon that begins the Mass in Latin quotes from St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians—a passage that happens this year, Year C in our 3-year lectionary cycle, to be our 2d Scripture reading.  (There are different readings in Years A and B.  Year C, you may have begun to notice, features St. Luke’s Gospel.)  The antiphon directs us, Gaudete in Domino semper, iterum dico: guadete.  Dominus prope est.  “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice.  Indeed, the Lord is near.” (4:4-5)

Rejoicing is, indeed, the theme of today’s liturgy.  That’s why the Advent wreath has a rose-colored candle and the priest may wear rose vestments—lightening the more somber violet of Advent.

Prophets Hosea, Amos, Zephaniah, Anonymous Russian icon painter (before 1917)
Public domain image (according to PD-RusEmpire), via Wikimedia Commons

Our 1st reading was from the rarely heard prophet Zephaniah, one of the so-called minor prophets of the OT, in contrast to the big guns, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel.  Zephaniah prophesied during the reign of King Josiah, who reigned in the 2d half of the 7th century B.C. and sponsored religious reform in a very difficult period for the Jewish kingdom.  Perhaps because Josiah fostered fidelity to the one, true God of Israel, Zephaniah’s prophecies include upbeat passages like today’s:  “Shout for joy, O daughter Zion!  Sing joyfully, O Israel!  The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst, a mighty savior.” (3:14,15,17)

On account of the Lord’s nearness, which Paul notes, we are to “have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, [to] make [our] requests known to God” (Phil 4:6).  During Advent, our minds frequently turn toward Christmas gifts; here God stands ready to offer us gifts:  “make your requests known” to him.  In fact, he’s already given us the greatest gifts imaginable, even beyond our imaging:  they “surpass all understanding” (4:7).  God has given us his own Son, and in his Son has given us forgiveness, peace of heart, and the promise of eternal life.  That’s why we’re to “have no anxiety at all, but in everything” to address God “with thanksgiving” and confidence.  That’s why St. Teresa of Avila can tell us:  “Let nothing disturb you, nothing frighten you. Everything passes, God alone is unchanging. Patience obtains everything.  Whoever has God lacks nothing: God alone is enuf!”  The 1st phrase of that quote was often on Don Bosco’s lips too, amid his many problems and in his encouragement to his disciples:  “Niente ti turbi.”

John the Baptist came, however, calling for change:  not that God would change, but that we should change—sharing our excess goods, being satisfied with enuf, treating people with dignity, all of which he calls for in the gospel we just heard (Luke 3:10-14).  Why?  Because the Mighty One of God was at hand.  “Your kindness should be known to all.  The Lord is near,” Paul says (Phil 4:5).  Kindness is a very great gift that we can give to everyone at Christmas—and every day.  Now that Christ has, in fact, come, “The Lord your God, is in your midst, a mighty savior; he will rejoice over you with gladness, and renew you in his love” (Zeph 3:17).  That gladness, that love is ours not to hoard but to pass on to the whole world.  “Shout for joy, O daughter Zion!”