Sunday Scripture Readings

Submitted on May 24, 2007

Send to friendTHIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT DECEMBER 14 Zephaniah 3:14-18; Isaiah 12:2-6 (responsorial psalm); Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:10-18 OUR GOOD NEWS: Rejoice! God is already in our midst, here and now. Time for us to strengthen our fellowship through reform of life. Today’s world suffers from loneliness and a feeling of powerlessness before destructive forces, both known and imagined. Zephaniah (first reading) and Isaiah (responsorial verse) proclaim that God is with us, and that because he is in charge we have nothing to fear. When God summoned his Chosen People to immediate rejoicing through the prophet Zephaniah, happy times still lay in the indeterminate future. Paul (second reading) invites us into God’s Kingdom already begun. He commands: "Dismiss all anxiety from your minds." Would that we could obey — promptly, thoroughly, permanently! And yet our hesitation reveals a deep-seated unfaith, an unwillingness to open up and receive the Good News, a holding back from surrendering to God’s transforming grace. In Jesus, Zephaniah’s promised age has already begun. Fear, discouragement and despair have no place in the lives of those who look to God rather than to frail human resources for support. "Prayer" is our characteristic activity and antidote to faithless anxiety. Our prayers combine "gratitude" for the Kingdom already possessed, with "petition" that we may more perfectly enter into it. Although the fullness of shalom (peace) lies in the future, these are exciting times since the time hastens to fulfillment: "The Lord is near!" Even now we are given a sufficiency of Final-Age "peace," because of which we can "always rejoice," even in the midst of life’s difficulties. Paul captured in one Greek word the whole spirit of Christian living when he commanded, "Let your epieikes be evident to everyone." This root Christian virtue has been variously expressed in English as graciousness, gentleness, forbearance, considerateness, unselfishness, tolerance, magnanimity. Such habitual behavior, fortified by constant prayer, is the Church’s sure sign that the Final Age approaches. It is a reality both awaited and already enjoyed by the Christian community. "Rejoice in the Lord always!" Paul implied that worry and anxiety can reveal pride rather than humility. We want to do for ourselves rather than hand over to God problems too big for human solution. Such fears also mean that we do not pray as we ought. We may be surprised that epieikes is the dominant Christian virtue, but it really characterizes God himself, and is a virtue most appealing to our modern, impersonal world. The theme of our Gospel selection is that God’s will makes specific demands upon each of us as individuals. Normally we are called to make realistic changes within our present situation rather than do something spectacular after altering our lifestyles. John the Baptist made concrete his generic summons to repentance for three groups of Jews whom strict Pharisaism would have written off as hopelessly immoral: "the crowds," mostly the ordinary poor; "toll collectors" who worked in a milieu of graft; and "soldiers," Jews serving the Jewish king Herod, easily tempted to extortion and intimidation. No one stands beyond the reach of God’s healing power!