Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - 15 December 2013

Gaudate Sunday

Third Sunday in Advent year A

As we come to the turning of the year with our shortest day before us, many will, I am sure be feeling worn out with the year’s work, and the frantic preparations for Christmas. It’s an odd time, when darkness and coldness chill not only the body but dampen the spirit a little too. I can think of sick and housebound people who find this a very depressing part of the year, and then there is our wider world with its huge problems that we see on our televisions and hear on the news.

That’s why we need to feel the consolation of the Prophet Isaiah’s words, strengthen weary hands, steady trembling knees, say to faint hearts, ‘Courage! Do not be afraid!’All of us need support and encouragement from time to time, to know somebody cares enough to be interested in us often lifts our spirits, does indeed give us a little bit more strength of purpose. To realise that Isaiah speaks to us now is something that the liturgy continually offers us through the proclamation of the Word of God.

Matthew helps open our eyes to the presence of Jesus. Where? If we listen to the words Jesus sends back to John in answer to his question, ‘are you the one to come?’, we discover that not only were the blind, lame, deaf and diseased people being cured by Jesus then, but they are still being cured now through the work of those who care for them. And the dead? Yes those who in past times would surely have been dead because of lack of medical intervention, can now, thanks to medical achievements, be restored to life. We have a lot to’ rejoice’ about despite our difficulties and problems.

Paul says ‘be patient’, but in a pro-active way, like the Baptist, we find Jesus in our seeking, but also have the task of preparing his way before him. Christ is amongst us in so many different modes of presence, but still we look towards his final coming. That’s the Good news still being proclaimed. Our task is to help people keep faith in the Lord. How do we do that? The scriptures help us, for deep in our hearts, as we move to the journeys end of Advent, as the darkness lengthens, we know it is to do with the light of love.