{"id":384,"date":"2020-12-12T09:56:23","date_gmt":"2020-12-12T09:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stmirinscathedral.co.uk\/?p=384"},"modified":"2020-12-12T09:56:23","modified_gmt":"2020-12-12T09:56:23","slug":"rejoice-in-the-lord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stmirinscathedral.co.uk\/?p=384","title":{"rendered":"Rejoice in the Lord!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fr Joe Burke reflects on the scriptures of the Third Sunday of Advent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This Sunday is the third Sunday in our holy season of Advent. Time marches on as Christmas itself comes nearer. Today is also known as \u201cGaudete Sunday\u201d. \u201cGaudete\u201d literally means \u201cRejoice! Be happy!\u201d If possible at Masses, the priest wears not the purple of Advent but a rose-coloured vestment. Everything seems different today. Why? Because of the message of the readings, especially the Gospel passage: Rejoice!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just like last Sunday, we are asked by Mother-Church to ponder the person of John the Baptist and his message to prepare for the coming of the Saviour, one of the central messages of Advent. We prepare not just materially for the Christmas celebrations but also much more importantly, we prepare ourselves spiritually. We are looking back two thousand years to Bethlehem but we are also being asked to look forward, to that day when the Lord will come again to bring this world to an end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Gospel last week and indeed this week, we hear how hordes of people had been flocking to John the Baptist, hoping, dreaming that he would be the long-awaited Messiah the prophets had spoken of for hundreds of years. This week John the Baptist\u2019s message would have filled the people with such joy. He declares openly and clearly that he is NOT the Messiah as some were thinking and saying but the people are not disappointed because he goes on to state clearly and openly that \u201cthere stands among you, unknown to you, the one who is coming after me; and I am not fit to undo his sandal strap\u201d. Already present in the world is its Saviour, the Messiah! The people on hearing this from John the Baptist\u2019s own lips must have been filled with such happiness and excitement! That\u2019s the cause of the rejoicing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two thousand years on, the message is just as full of joy for the believer today as it was all those years ago. The love of God, proven in His taking on human flesh and being born in Bethlehem to teach us with His own words and set examples for us to follow, that love which led Him to die on the cross for our sins in order to save us, that love we are preparing to remember and celebrate on Christmas Day, is still given to us now. Our God walks with us, watches over us and wants to bring us closer to Himself. He is the light shining for those lost in the spiritual darkness and emptiness of a material world. He shines through His words and teachings and indeed through us His modern-day disciples. The question is: Do we reflect that Light to others? When others look at us, do they see someone happy, filled with spiritual joy or do they see someone beaten down by this modern world with all its problems, cares and worries?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The message from John the Baptist to us is \u201cThe Lord loves you! He cares for you and is WITH you every second of every day\u201d! Let\u2019s try to bring some happiness and joy to those we meet this week. \u201cGaudete!\u201d Be happy! Rejoice in the nearness of God to us!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fr Joe Burke reflects on the scriptures of the Third Sunday of Advent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmirinscathedral.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmirinscathedral.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmirinscathedral.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmirinscathedral.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmirinscathedral.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=384"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stmirinscathedral.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":386,"href":"https:\/\/stmirinscathedral.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions\/386"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmirinscathedral.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmirinscathedral.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmirinscathedral.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmirinscathedral.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}