This third Sunday of Advent is called ‘Gaudete’, a Latin word which means ‘Rejoice’! All our readings invite us to rejoice because our hope is assured. Prophet Zephaniah in the first reading invites us to rejoice and be glad because “The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a mighty savior; He rejoices over you and renew you in his love”. God himself is glad to be in our midst. In the second reading, St. Paul tells the Philippians, “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, rejoice!” May our joy of this season be a manifest in our kindness to others.
The pink/rose candle of our Advent wreath is lit today. We wear colorful Rose vestments at Mass. It is an invitation for us to rejoice. We rejoice, not because everything is perfect, but because our savior, our hope, is by the corner. We rejoice because we are almost ready to receive him into our lives. We rejoice because we know for sure that he comes with a lot of goodies (blessings). We rejoice because it is almost Christmas.
What do we need to do to be fully prepared to welcome our savior? In today’s Gospel, after John the Baptist had preached to the crowd to ‘prepare the way for the Lord’, they asked him: “What should we do?” John replied to them, “Whoever has two cloaks should share with the person who has none. And whoever has food should do likewise”. Christmas is a time of expressing our love and care for our brothers and sisters, family and friends, the poor and the needy, that we like and those we don’t like, those who have hurt us and those we have offended. It is a time of kindness.
As we are busy with Christmas decorations, gifts and dinner-planning's, let us also consider reaching out to those most in need of our love and kindness. Our world needs love that radiates the joy of the gospel. May we bring joy and relief, not sadness and frustration, to those around us.
PARISH ADVENT CONFESSIONS: On December 19, we shall have the last chance to go to confessions before Christmas. To better manage the number of penitents, we have added a morning session. We shall be available for confessions from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. In the afternoon, we will begin at 3:30 p.m. and end at 7 p.m. Please make good use of this opportunity, as there will be no confessions on Dec. 21.
SIMBANG GABI & LAS POSADAS: This week we are having some of our traditional Christmas celebrations. Las Posadas will be at 7pm from December 16-23. Simbang Gabi will be on Saturday, December 21st at 7:30 a.m. with some good food after the Mass. All are welcome to participate.
