Parish Bulletins

This Week in the Bulletin:

Rejoice: It's a Christian Imperative!
Gaudete Sunday commands us, Christians and Catholics, to rejoice. This Latin word, gaudete, is in the imperative mood, plural. It enjoins us to rejoice as a community. We should rejoice because we are now very close to Christmas. We light the third candle of the Advent wreath, whose color, pink or rose, symbolises joy.
We will better understand the command to rejoice when we take the Word of God seriously.
The First Reading contains vocabularies that pertain to rejoicing: the dry land will exult; the steppe will rejoice with joyful song; the ransomed people will meet with joy and gladness. The desert will bloom with abundant flowers; the glory of Lebanon, the splendour of Carmel and Sharon (northern Israel), will be given the people; they will see the glory of God. The Lord is coming with vindication and salvation. He will heal those afflicted with illnesses. God will reverse the miserable fate of his people.
The Second Reading exhorts us to have the patience of a farmer who, after sowing, waits for the seeds to sprout and the plants to grow until it is time for harvest. Patience is an important ingredient to rejoicing. Devoid of patience, we can become rowdy, mindless, cranky, undisciplined, critical, quarrelsome and intolerant.
In the Gospel, John the Baptist sends his disciples to Jesus to verify if he is the Christ. John has worked hard to prepare for the coming of the Messiah. Jesus sends the delegation back to him with the report: "The blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them." Yes, Jesus is the Messiah, the fulfillment of the Prophets and the Psalms.
Jesus makes his disciples realise how lucky they are. They have encountered John, whom Jesus considers the greatest among those born of women. But they can be greater than John, provided that they become least in God's Kingdom.
This Sunday calls us to rejoice in our faith and celebrate promises. It anticipates the coming of Jesus in his birth, in our present history, and in his glorious return. We rejoice because we believe Christ is here intervening in our history, giving us hope and liberating us from all forms of oppression, injustice, misery, and false values.
To us who live our faith, gaudete is no longer a command, but a spontaneous response to God's call to participate in his divine life. We rejoice, celebrating our faith and the coming of Jesus who gives us joy.
366 Days with the Lord Fr Gil Alinsangan SSP

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