Thursday December 16

THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT

 

God’s Faithful Love

 

Introduction

The first reading speaks of the future glory of Jerusalem, God’s people. She had deserted God like an unfaithful bride, and God had apparently abandoned her for a while in the exile. Now he is ready to take her back and renew his covenant with her; she becomes again like a new bride. God’s new initiative of love has even room for the sinner, for it is a covenant of mercy and pity, and Jerusalem’s stability will come not from her justice but from God’s love. This will become a reality in the new people of God, the Church, which is God’s bride through Christ.

John, who prepared the road for Christ’s coming, is the greatest of prophets, yet he is the smallest in the new Kingdom of Christ, because he did not see the full reality of Christ, the God-Man, the God-with-people, and of the message of Jesus.

 

Opening Prayer

Lord, faithful God of the covenant,
you kept your promise
of a new and permanent union with people
through Jesus Christ, our God-with-us.
Give us grateful hearts
for accepting us with mercy and pity
as the sinners we are.
Renew us by your faithful love
and let your covenant of peace
never be shaken.
Stay always with us
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

Reading 1: Is 54:1-10 

Raise a glad cry, you barren one who did not bear,
Break forth in jubilant song, you who were not in labor,
For more numerous are the children of the deserted wife
than the children of her who has a husband,
says the LORD.
Enlarge the space for your tent,
spread out your tent cloths unsparingly;
lengthen your ropes and make firm your stakes.
For you shall spread abroad to the right and to the left;
your descendants shall dispossess the nations
and shall people the desolate cities.

Fear not, you shall not be put to shame;
you need not blush, for you shall not be disgraced.
The shame of your youth you shall forget,
the reproach of your widowhood no longer remember.
For he who has become your husband is your Maker;
his name is the LORD of hosts;
Your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel,
called God of all the earth.
The LORD calls you back,
like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit,
A wife married in youth and then cast off,
says your God.
For a brief moment I abandoned you,
but with great tenderness I will take you back.
In an outburst of wrath, for a moment
I hid my face from you;
But with enduring love I take pity on you,
says the LORD, your redeemer.

This is for me like the days of Noah,
when I swore that the waters of Noah
should never again deluge the earth;
So I have sworn not to be angry with you,
or to rebuke you.
Though the mountains leave their place
and the hills be shaken,
My love shall never leave you
nor my covenant of peace be shaken,
says the LORD, who has mercy on you.

 

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 30:2 and 4, 5-6, 11-12a and 13b

(2a) I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
I will extol you, O LORD, for you drew me clear
and did not let my enemies rejoice over me.
O LORD, you brought me up from the nether world;
you preserved me from among those going down into the pit.
R. I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
Sing praise to the LORD, you his faithful ones,
and give thanks to his holy name.
For his anger lasts but a moment;
a lifetime, his good will.
At nightfall, weeping enters in,
but with the dawn, rejoicing.
R. I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
“Hear, O LORD, and have pity on me;
O LORD, be my helper.”
You changed my mourning into dancing;
O LORD, my God, forever will I give you thanks.
R. I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.

 

Alleluia: Lk 3:4, 6

Alleluia, alleluia.
Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths:
All flesh shall see the salvation of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

 

Gospel: Lk 7:24-30

When the messengers of John the Baptist had left,
Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John.
“What did you go out to the desert to see B a reed swayed by the wind?
Then what did you go out to see?
Someone dressed in fine garments?
Those who dress luxuriously and live sumptuously
are found in royal palaces.
Then what did you go out to see?
A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.
This is the one about whom Scripture says:

Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
he will prepare your way before you.

I tell you,
among those born of women, no one is greater than John;
yet the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he.”
(All the people who listened, including the tax collectors,
who were baptized with the baptism of John,
acknowledged the righteousness of God;
but the Pharisees and scholars of the law,
who were not baptized by him,
rejected the plan of God for themselves.)

 

Intercessions

–   That God’s people may be a joyful people, for God never abandons us; may he forgive us and always begin anew with us, we pray:

–   That we may be grateful people, for God brings us always forgiveness and reconciliation, we pray:

–   That we may be a people who keep preparing in hope the way for the deeper coming among us of Christ, we pray:

 

Prayer over the Gifts

Lord, faithful God,
we wish this bread and this wine to say
that we are open
to the full coming among us
of your Son Jesus Christ.
Through him, call us back
close to your heart,
restore us with a youthful love,
that people may praise you
as the God of mercy and tender love,
now and for ever.

 

Prayer after Communion

God of mercy and love,
in this eucharist you have shown us
what John the Baptist could not see,
that you are our God-with-us
in your Son Jesus Christ.
Strong with this faith and joy,
may we go out and prepare the way
for the full coming among people
of your future of justice and love
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

Blessing

We cannot be but a people of hope. For notwithstanding our failures, God does not give up on us. He relies on us to be trailblazers for him, who cannot give up trying again and again to be good and loving people, just and merciful. That is our vocation, with the blessing of almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit

 

Commentary

Johann Tauler (1300-1361) wrote, “St. John wrote of [John the Baptist] that he was a witness to the light…. What higher praise could we give to this Saint than to call him “a witness to the light?” This light sheds its rays into the innermost and furthest depths of our souls, teaching us stability and strength. When we have received this witness we become immovable, like a mountain of iron, instead of being swayed to and fro like a reed….

Our Lord also said, ‘He is more than a prophet,’ that is, there are depths in us which reason cannot touch, where in the light we see light—that is, in an inward light, the light of grace…. This comes to us first in a hidden manner, for our faculties cannot come within a thousand miles of these depths of our soul. The knowledge which instructs us in these depths has neither image nor form nor manner; it has no parts which can be separately recognized; it is an unfathomable abyss, not to be limited, not to be plumbed, ebbing and flowing like the sea. As we sink into it, it may seem empty and dry; yet in a moment it may well up and overflow as if it would engulf all things. We sink into this abyss, and in it is God’s true dwelling place, more than in heaven or in all His creatures. Those who could find their way here would truly find God here, and would find themselves at one with God, for God never leaves this abyss. God would be present to them, and here they would apprehend and delight in eternity, for here there is neither past nor future. There is no created light which can reach these depths or illumine them; for this is nothing else than God’s dwelling, God’s own place.”

Mary’s privilege was beyond reckoning; “of all women you are the most blessed,” said Elizabeth (John the Baptist’s mother). Yet Mary was to suffer grief and become the ‘Mother of Sorrows’. She is a type of the Church: joy and sorrow will mingle in equal measure for any true disciple. Jesus did not come to make life easy, someone said, but to make people great.