{"id":976,"date":"2022-12-07T13:58:49","date_gmt":"2022-12-07T13:58:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=976"},"modified":"2022-12-07T14:59:07","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T14:59:07","slug":"reflection-15-december-2019-a-third-sunday-of-advent-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=976","title":{"rendered":"Reflection: 12 December 2022 (A) Third Sunday of Advent (A)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reflection &\nDialogue: <\/em><\/strong>Jesus Christ the cause of our joy<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditionally this third Sunday of\nAdvent was known as \u201cGaudete <\/em>Sunday\u201d\nfrom the opening word Gaudete,<\/em>\n\u201cRejoice\u201d in the Latin Entrance Antiphon: \u201cRejoice in the Lord always; again I\nsay rejoice. Indeed the Lord is near\u201d. In one sense the basis for rejoicing is\nthe nearness of  the Lord. Some biblical\nscholars believe that the \u201cnearness\u201d in question refers to the second coming of\nChrist \u2013 a point by no means clear. In any event, Christian joy is not founded\non belief and expectation of the second coming of Christ. Together with peace,\nit is a gift from Christ. This joy is a gift that no one can take from\nbelievers in Christ (John 16:22). Jesus\u2019 desire is that believers may have his\njoy made complete in themselves (John 17:13). He told his disciples to rejoice\nand be glad when people revile them and persecute them and slander them for his\nsake, and Paul and his early Christians so rejoiced.                                                                                           <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this may appear to be too theoretical,\nwith little or no bearing on any dialogue with the world in which we live. This\nis not quite the case. If joy is a gift from Christ it is active in the entire\nlife of believers, not just in religious affairs. The Church currently is kept\naware of the scandals and weaknesses within her, but believers know that with\nthe grace of God she is being purified and these will become a thing of the\npast. Christian joy comes from belief in God who is ever present. When we look\naround us we can perceive joy \u2013 joy at sport events, at football matches where\none\u2019s favourite team is supported, but in case of defeat there is no\nrecrimination for something that is but a game. This is evidence of joy and\npeace. There is joy in conversation, over a drink, with \u201ccraic\u201d and music, and\nin many of the ordinary events of life. And in times of trouble there can also\nbe joy, in the belief that God is near and will see us through. These are a few\nof the thoughts worth reflecting on on this \u201cRejoicing\u201d Sunday \u2013 recalling St Paul\u2019s words: \u201cRejoice\nin the Lord always; again I say Rejoice. The Lord is near\u201d,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reflection & Dialogue: Jesus Christ the cause of our joy Traditionally this third Sunday of Advent was known as \u201cGaudete Sunday\u201d from the opening word Gaudete, \u201cRejoice\u201d in the Latin … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=976"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1962,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976\/revisions\/1962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}