Here is a contribution to enter next Sunday's Word of God. God bless us and may the Virgin protect us!

[15 December 2024] 3rd Advent Sunday 2024

*First Reading Zeph 3:14-18

Since the 8th century BC (with Hosea), the prophets understood and announced that God is love by developing the theme of the Covenant as a wedding between the Lord and his chosen people. When they return to speak of Israel's unfaithfulness, it is to denounce the constant risk of a return to idolatry, and they always recall the promise of the Messiah, which sounds like an announcement of hope. In the book of the prophet Zechariah we read: "Fear not, for I am in the midst of thee, saith the Lord" (2:15), and in Hosea: "Fear not...I am God and not a man; I am the Holy One in the midst of thee." (11,9). And a few centuries later, the angel Gabriel will say to Mary: "Rejoice, Mary... The Lord is with you" and the Virgin will give birth to Jesus, the Emmanuel, the God with us.  Today, the first reading brings us face to face with Zephaniah, who, about a century after Hosea, uses the two usual languages of the prophets: threats against those who do evil and encouragement for those who commit themselves to remain faithful to the Covenant: "The Lord will rejoice over you, he will renew you with his love, he will exult over you with shouts of joy" (Zeph 3:17-18). This sentence, which concludes today's first reading, is enough to understand that already in the Old Testament the prophets had announced that God is love. It is therefore not accurate to say that only in the New Testament is God who is love spoken of. The words of Zephaniah are not new even though it took several centuries of biblical revelation, that is, of divine pedagogy, to arrive at such an understanding. At the beginning of the Covenant between God and His people, the image of the wedding to indicate the Covenant would have been ambiguous, and for this reason, at first, it was essential to discover the God who was completely Other than the gods of the neighbouring nations and at the same time affirm the need to establish a Covenant with Him. It was Hosea (8th century B.C.) who first spoke of the Covenant between God and His people as a real bond of love, similar to that of betrothal, followed by later prophets: the First Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, the Second and the Third Isaiah, who resort to the typical language of betrothal and marriage with affectionate names, mentioning wedding garments, bridal crowns, fidelity. The so-called Third Isaiah (6th century BC) went so far as to employ the term 'desire' (in the sense of loving desire) to describe God's feelings towards his people. Let us then think of the Song of Songs (between the 6th and 3rd centuries BC, although some parts are earlier), a long love dialogue composed of seven poems, where it is never clearly identified who the two lovers are.  Israel, however, interprets it as the dialogue between God and his people and proclaims it during the celebration of the Passover, the feast of the Covenant between God and Israel. If the people of Israel are likened to a bride, every unfaithfulness to the Covenant becomes not only a breach of contract, but outright adultery, and this is why the prophets resort to terms such as jealousy, ingratitude, betrayal and reconciliation: every unfaithfulness is a return to idolatry. It is in this context that Zephaniah (7th century BC) lived in Jerusalem during the reign of Josiah (in 640 BC) and his book is only five pages long, but dense and full of famous messages. He exhorts the king and the people to conversion (cf. 2.3), urgent under the reigns of Manasseh and Amon marked by idolatry, violence, fraud, lies, social injustice, arrogance of the powerful and oppression of the poor. Zephaniah denounces those who prostrate themselves before the Lord and then swear by their god, the idol Milkom often identified with Moloch (cf.1,5) and condemns religious syncretism; he also condemns those who fill the house of the Lord with fruits of violence and deception (cf.1,9). The two prophetic languages are very clear: threats against the wicked, as in the famous "Dies Irae" song taken from his texts, and encouragement for the humble faithful, as in the passage we read today. Zephaniah addresses Jerusalem 'daughter of Zion' with words of joy and hope: 'Rejoice, daughter of Zion... The Lord your God in your midst is a mighty Saviour'. Despite Israel's unfaithfulness, God's love perseveres towards his people.  Zephaniah invites them to conversion by announcing a new Jerusalem, a land of the humble and the faithful, where God will reside forever and thus anticipates the message that will be taken up by others (such as Joel and Zechariah). This message will be fully realised in the New Testament, when the angel says to Mary: "Rejoice, full of grace... The Lord is with you" (Lk 1:28) and in John's gospel: "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1:14). The invitation to rejoice resounds throughout the liturgy of this Sunday, which is called 'Gaudete Sunday' (rejoice) because God became man and was born in Bethlehem: he makes it possible for us to share in his own life, which the sin of our forefathers had precluded and lost.

*Responsorial Psalm Isaiah 12:2-6

"My strength and my song is the Lord; he has been my salvation". This is the song that Isaiah foresees for the day when the people will be saved, but which we can already sing today in the midst of difficulties because it is precisely in weakness that we can experience the true source of our strength. St Paul wrote that the power of the Lord appears in fullness in our weakness (cf. 2 Cor 12:9). This canticle, although not part of the Psalter, may well be considered a true psalm because it is steeped in confidence and thanksgiving, at a decidedly dark time for Israel, which was under threat from the Assyrian empire as well as from the two neighbouring kings.  At that time, Isaiah sang words of hope announcing the not too distant end of Assyria and the liberation of Judah in a style that closely resembles Moses' song of thanksgiving after the liberation from Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea (Ex 15). Like Moses then, Isaiah sings of his faith in a liberating God, who never abandons his people and is indeed constantly present in their midst. Like Moses, Isaiah understood that Israel's election was not an exclusive; it was rather a vocation, and to fulfil it the saved people had only one mission: to testify in the midst of men that God is indeed the only deliverer. This psalm of trust and thanksgiving to God, the saviour, Isaiah proclaims while the political context is dark and fear dominates throughout the region. We are in the 8th century BC, between about 740 and 730, when the Assyrian empire (capital Nineveh) was an emerging power with a seemingly unstoppable expansion. The Assyrians were the enemy and Nineveh, as we read in the book of Jonah, an ungodly city where wickedness of all kinds was carried out. After Solomon's death (930 B.C.), God's people split into two tiny kingdoms, which instead of allying as brothers chose different and sometimes even opposing policies. The northern kingdom (capital Samaria) tried to resist Assyrian pressure and allied with the king of Damascus to besiege Jerusalem in order to force King Achaz to join their coalition. Achaz then found himself between two fires: on the one hand, the two less powerful but very close neighbouring kings already at the gates of Jerusalem; on the other, Nineveh, which might end up crushing them all. Achaz preferred to surrender before fighting by becoming a vassal of Assyria: he bought his security at the price of freedom. This choice was humanly preferable, but do God's people have the right to reason according to human logic? The calculations came from fear, but can a believer afford to be afraid? Where has faith gone? Isaiah writes: "The heart of Achaz and the heart of his people were stirred, as the trees of the forest are stirred by the wind" (Is 7:2) and King Achaz, in the grip of doubts and fears, performs a terrible deed: he sacrifices his son to a pagan deity, ready by now to do anything to avoid losing the war.  He was a man of little faith and it is in this historical context that Isaiah encourages the little faithful remnant to hope: "You shall say on that day: I praise you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me, your cholera has subsided and you have comforted me" (12:1). He goes on to exhort calmness and not to be afraid (cf. 7:4) because if you do not believe, you will not endure (cf. 7:9) while, on the contrary, addressing men of little faith, he begins a long discourse of hope, which occupies chapters 7 to 11, the very ones that precede our song today. The triumphs of Assyria were, as expected, fleeting, and soon came the song of freedom. The prophet Isaiah composed this canticle, which today is the responsorial psalm, precisely to celebrate in advance the deliverance wrought by God, an authentic song of relief where, rather than the joy of being delivered, a true profession of faith emerges. Resuming the comparison with the canticle of Moses and the Israelites, Isaiah, five hundred years later, renews the same profession of faith to support his contemporaries so that they may understand that just as God once liberated Israel from Pharaoh, in the same way he will now liberate it from the Assyrian empire. I close by pointing out that Israel never reserves to itself the exclusivity of its covenant relationship with God: every time it gives thanks in the psalms for divine election, it brings out a note of universalism because throughout the centuries it has increasingly understood that its election is not an exclusive, but a vocation.  At the time of Isaiah, this was already clear and in today's text the note of universalism is perceived in the formula: "Proclaim among the peoples his works, make them remember that his name is sublime" (v.4). A clear message also for us: in order to respond to our vocation as men saved by God's merciful love, we have, as our only mission, the task of testifying, with song and life, that God is truly our salvation: "My strength and my song is the Lord". 

 * Second Reading from St Paul's Letter to the Philippians (4:4-7)

It is worth repeating that all the texts of this Sunday speak of joy and invite joy.

"Brothers, the Lord is near... , do not be anxious about anything, but in every circumstance make your requests known to God with prayers supplications and thanksgiving". In this text, which is the paragraph in the last chapter of the letter to the Macedonian community of Philippi, St Paul offers us some spiritual pointers to consider: 

1. It is characteristic of Jewish prayer to always combine supplication and thanksgiving. It joins: Blessed are you, Lord, who give us... and, we pray, grant us, this because whoever prays to God for his own good is certain to be heard and the fact of asking for something is already implicitly thanking him. Indeed, every human request reveals nothing new to God, but prepares us to receive the gift he gives us. Through prayer we open the door to God and immerse ourselves in his gift.

2. "The Lord is near": This expression, parallel to that of Zephaniah in the first reading, and analogous to what John the Baptist announces: "The kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Mt 3:2) evokes a central theme in St Paul and has at least two meanings: God is near because he loves us, and this awareness gradually grew in the Old Testament. Moreover, God is also near because the times are fulfilled, the Kingdom of God has begun, and we are living in the end times. In the first letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle writes that "The time has come short" ( 7:29-31), recalling the image of a sailing ship that, having reached the harbour, gathers the veils in preparation for landing. The message is clear: history is about to come to its fulfilment, and just as the passengers of the ship crowd around the edges to catch a glimpse of the land that is now near, so the Christian must direct his life towards the kingdom of God that is now near.

3. If the Lord is near, we have no reason to worry because our final abode is in heaven and from there we await the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour (cf. Phil 3:20).  Had not Jesus repeated: "Why do you fear, men of little faith?". And did he not recommend: "Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, nor about your body, what you will wear... Seek first the kingdom and the righteousness of God, and everything else will be given you besides" (Mt 6:25-34). When we seek the kingdom of God, we proclaim with our lives: 'Thy kingdom come, Lord' and we project our existence decisively towards Christ.  It is then, listening to St Paul, a matter of reviewing the priorities of life and checking what are the fundamental values that move it: Is the kingdom of God the true primary purpose of our existence? And if so, the only witness to offer is to live in the serenity of confident surrender: 'Let your lovingkindness be known to all men. The Lord is near'. No matter how serious the problems and enormous the obstacles, evil will be definitively defeated, and then: 'Do not distress yourselves over anything.  When we live like this, the loving-kindness/serenity of which St Paul speaks is transformed into joy: 'Brothers, always be glad in the Lord'.  

Today, the third Sunday of Advent, is therefore the Sunday of joy, and underlining this incessant invitation to be joyful are also the pink ornaments that the celebrant wears. The exhortation to joy is right from the beginning of the Mass, which opens like this: 'Gaudete - Rejoice', and it is more than an advice, a real command. And in this regard, how can we forget the words of Jesus: 'I have told you these things that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full' (Jn 15:11). Joy that does not eliminate difficulties, but makes us remain united with him in order to share even our difficulties with him; joy that does not come from events external to man, but from the presence of God in our hearts: it is Christian joy that has nothing to do with worldly pleasure and that conquers the world.

Gospel according to Luke 3:10-18

Dominating the figure in today's gospel is John the Baptist who, like the Old Testament prophets, called for the practice of justice, sharing and non-violence, themes dear to all prophets. Listening to him were the little ones, the crowd, the people, the disliked (such as the publicans and soldiers who probably accompanied them) and to them he announced in direct and severe language the conversion to welcome the coming of the Messiah. Indeed, the people, supposing him to be the Messiah they had long awaited, asked him what the conversion he preached consisted in. The answer was simple: true conversion is measured by our attitude towards our neighbour: practising justice, sharing our goods with others and practising non-violence.  Encouraged by his example, many approached him to receive baptism, convinced that he was the Messiah. His reply, however, was clear: I am not the Messiah. I proclaim to you, however, that he is coming who is stronger than I am, and, the evangelist Luke adds, with these and many other exhortations, he proclaimed the gospel to the people. There are thus two poles in this text of Luke: the first is the human expectation and hope expressed in the people's question three times: "What shall we do?" and the three times recall, according to some exegetes, the baptism ritual of the primitive communities. The second pole is the proclamation of Christ to the waiting people - it is not I but he is already among you - as John repeats. The first chapters of Luke's gospel are steeped in expectation: the elders Simeon and Anna in the Temple and here those who listen to the Baptist, and when Luke speaks of the gospel, he is referring to precisely this: the proclamation of the Messiah that the Baptist presents in two ways: He who baptises in the Holy Spirit and He who exercises the Judgement of God.  

1. He who baptises in the Holy Spirit. The prophet Joel foretold that, at the coming of the Messiah, God would pour out his Spirit on every human being (cf. Jer.ch.3/ch.2 in the Hebrew translations). Jesus did not therefore invent baptism because John already did it and that is why they called him the Baptist. Although immersion ceremonies were practised at Qumran, at the time of Jesus baptism was uncommon and very recent. In the Old Testament, the terms baptism and baptism are very rare; in fact, the rite of entry into the community was circumcision, not baptism, and baptism is never mentioned in the Torah. The Jewish religion provided for water rites, ablutions without ever envisaging total immersion in water, and they all had the purpose of purifying in the biblical sense: not to remove sin but to allow man to separate himself from all that is impure because it is part of the profane world, in order to enter into contact with the sacred, that is, with God.

With John the Baptist, an important and completely revolutionary step takes place: baptism takes on the new meaning of conversion and remission of sins. He himself then announces that with the arrival of Christ, baptism will be even more different: I baptise you with water, but he will baptise you in Holy Spirit and fire. The great novelty is not in the verb to baptise because John is baptising Jews in the Jordan, but in the phrase that follows "in Holy Spirit and fire" which must have had an extraordinary effect and that is why people flocked to John to be baptised. The expression Holy Spirit hardly existed at all in the Old Testament and the rare times that the adjective holy appeared indicated the spirit of the holy God and not the Holy Spirit, a distinct person of the Trinity. In the Old Testament, the urgency was to free the people from the risk of polytheism and to reveal the one God, so it might have been excessive to reveal at once the mystery of the one God in three persons. They spoke of the breath of God that gives life force to man and impels him to act according to the divine will, but they had not yet come to know him as the Holy Spirit person. John's words open the door to revelation when he announces a baptism in the Holy Spirit and no longer a baptism with water, marking a radical change. His baptism is a symbol of conversion and remission of sins and announces a different baptism: I baptise you with water... the Messiah who is already among you will baptise you in the Holy Spirit and fire where the Greek preposition 'kai' (in Italian and) does not indicate an addition, but an equivalence whereby the Baptist states that the Messiah will baptise in the Holy Spirit who is fire, that is, in the fire of the Holy Spirit. Luke always emphasises the difference between the baptism of John and that of Jesus: John baptised with water as a sign of conversion, while Christian baptism is an immersion in the Holy Spirit, the fire of God's love, a baptism that grafts believers into the paschal mystery of Christ, defeating sin and death. 

2. John presents the Messiah as the One who exercises the Judgement of God. In the Old Testament, the Messiah was expected as the king who would eliminate evil and make justice reign. In the songs of the Servant of God (in the Second Isaiah), the judgement that the Messiah would exercise with authority and with fire emerges. Here John takes up the sign of fire as a symbol of purification: 'He holds the shovel in his hand to clean his threshing floor and gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with an unquenchable fire'. This is an image that his listeners knew and that represented good news because this separation did not suppress anyone; this fire does not destroy but purifies. The fire of Judgement purifies without destroying anything: just as gold is purified and made shining through fire, so the fire of the Holy Spirit frees those who receive it from everything that does not conform to the Kingdom of justice and peace established by the Messiah. 

Some concluding reflections

*John invites sharing without ever judging others. We often help someone only after having asked ourselves if they deserve it, but this way of acting is still based on merit, not on the gratuitousness of love. 

*John confesses that he is not even worthy to untie the lace of Christ's sandals.  The rabbis recommended not imposing on a slave of Jewish origin such a menial and humiliating task as untying the master's sandals or washing his feet. 

* Many publicans, i.e. tax collectors who worked for the Roman Empire, were taxed by the Romans and often recovered more than they had paid in taxes. For this reason every official was regarded and feared as a publican.  

*The soldiers mentioned here were probably mercenaries in the service of the publicans and not Jewish or Roman soldiers. The Jews had no right to have an army and the Roman soldiers, who occupied Palestine, did not mix in the affairs of the people.

Holy Sunday!

+Giovanni D'Ercole