Third Sunday Advent. Year B - Sunday, December 13, 2020 -(EPISODE: 266)

Third Sunday Advent. Year B - Sunday, December 13, 2020
(EPISODE: 266)

Readings for 3rd Sunday of Advent - B
FIRST READING: Isa 61:1-2a, 10-11
Luke 1:46-48, 49-50, 53-54. "My soul rejoices in my God."
SECOND READING: 1 Thess 5:16-24
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (Isa 61:1 (cited in Lk 4:18)). Alleluia, alleluia! The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; he sent me to bring the Good news to the poor. Alleluia!
GOSPEL: John 1:6-8, 19-28

Shutterstock licensed Image:  stock photo ID: 697915306. ISTANBUL, TURKEY - OCTOBER 30, 2015: Deesis - Byzantine mosaic in Hagia Sophia church, showing Jesus Christ and John the Baptist (Ioannes Prodromos), probably dates from 1261. By Zzvet.

++++

Please listen to the audio-recordings of the Mass – (Readings, prayers and homily), for Third Sunday Advent. Year B - Sunday, December 13, 2020, by clicking this link here: https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/faith-hope-and-love-advent-3b-episode-266-third-sunday-of-advent-year-b   (EPISODE: 266)
+++++
*Prologue: Our Advent journey of waiting is nearing its end. Only one more Sunday after this, and then Christmas will be upon us!
 
There is a tone of increasing joy and expectation in the readings and prayers this weekend. The whole weekend is called "Rejoice Sunday," as we are filled with joy at the nearness of the Lord and the salvation he brings to us and our loved ones and friends. This offer of salvation is for all people of every time and place.
 
There is something ironic here.  John the Baptist himself illustrates in his own life, the disciple who is humble and self-forgetting, rejecting the temptation to pride, and being open to change his thinking, so as to match the ways of God. This extraordinary Prophet, who came to testify to the coming of Jesus, the Light of the World, himself practises the very word he preaches - because John the Baptist got a bit of a shock when Jesus arrived. 
 
John had been preaching the old 'fire and brimstone' model of the Old Testament prophets. He taught that the judgement of God was close at hand. He warned people that God will come in power with his threshing sword and uproot the weeds and sort out the wheat from the chaff and throw the rubbish into the fire. He warned people that Christ would bring down God's judgment upon the earth - uprooting the stubborn plants... But then, astoundingly, along comes Jesus. Our Lord announces, (in line with our first reading), a time of grace and mercy. This is a season of jubilee, including the complete and wholesale cancellation of debt, as well as freedom of prisoners, the forgiveness of sin and renewed life and favour from God.
 
John is understandably confused. It is as if he was preparing everyone to celebrate a funeral and then at the very last minute someone rushes up and says, "Actually it's a wedding feast, not a funeral." That was the dramatic revelation that probably took John the Baptist, (and many others), by surprise. We know John the Baptist was fairly surprised and confused because we are told in Matthew's Gospel (11:13) that he sends disciples to ask Jesus: "are you the one who IS to come.. or OUGHT we to wait for another????"
 
Let us instead be joyful followers, in the spirit of John. may we be ever-ready and willing to adjust course according to the sudden and unexpected commands of God. God sees the whole picture and knows best. Certainly better than our mortal perceptions.
 
We would not be a very useful instrument in God's hand unless we are open to adjusting our direction at the sudden instructions of the master-craftsman. To be truly open to those fine adjustments, we must not assume that our vision is the perfect touchstone of how everything should be. Rather, we remain open to God's word, and the wisdom of the faith community and the experiences and insights of our brothers and sisters around us.
 
We can so easily want to stretch God's ways and thoughts so that they suit our desires and expectations. We are constantly on guard against this so that we can, just like John the Baptist, "decrease," so that Christ will "increase"...

O Come, Lord Jesus and deliver us, without delay.
+++++
Homily:  Fr Peter Dillon.
'Knowledge comes but wisdom lingers' (Tennyson)

 One of my seminary teachers, a wise old Irishman, Fr. David Hawe said: "True learning happens not by getting the right answers, but by asking the right questions!"
So many questions. Today's encounter in the gospel is full of them. Eight in all. Why are there so many questions in this brief passage? Why does Jesus not give a direct 'yes' or 'no' answer to the question asked by John's disciples? Why does Jesus use questions to answer questions?

  Jesus' response to John's disciples' question is 'hear' and 'see' - look and listen. Consider the difference. If Jesus had answered with a straight out 'YES I AM' the disciples would have rushed back to John the Baptizer with the answer and maybe have learnt nothing. How much more did they learn by having to 'look and listen'? How much more did they have to catch by osmosis? Perhaps they shifted from having a rational understanding of who Christ is to being prophets themselves - to being a sign, a sacrament of Christ's presence in the world. Perhaps they were able to live the question
  Jesus asks seven other questions - which is really one question asked in seven different ways. HOW Jesus asks these questions is perhaps more important than what is asked. It is possibly in the HOW of asking the question that Jesus does several things.

  Firstly he emphasises the importance of John the Baptizer as the one preparing the way.

  Secondly, Jesus has the people looking at themselves, at their own motivation and what drives them - what did they go out to see? Why did they go out? Did they go out to the desert because they were curious or inquisitive; because John was seen as an oddity or a rarity, somehow different; was it peer pressure, or was there a genuine longing to learn, to search for the truth, to hear what John had to preach.

 Finally Jesus was challenging the people to live the questions - did the people really want to hear and see John? Did they want to listen to him as prophet? Did they really want to hear his message and be a sacrament of Christ's presence in their world?
  What about us? Are we searching and questioning. More importantly, are we living the questions?

  Our Church today is facing a crisis which raises some difficult questions but is the church addressing the real issues? Is the decline in priests' numbers shifting the focus of the church from the real question of why the church exists, of why we are church? Are we as church, genuinely trying to search out what it means to be catholic; to witness to Christ's presence in the world; to be prophet? Are we probing for possibilities, reaching out, trying to express a deep yearning and longing or are we comfortably sitting back waiting for an influx of priests who will be and do our religion for us, who will give us answers so that we do not have to see and hear?

  A worse scenario would be when we think we already have all the answers - that we want to live our religion based on our past understanding and experience; that we have all the answers and do not need to question.
The gospel today begins with the absence of light, so John's role is akin to turning the light on or showing people where to look when the light finally arrives.
Like John we are asked to make way for the light and our role is to let the light shine through the chunks of solid darkness that litter our human landscape. This requires us to look first at ourselves and work quietly on the darkness that hides within us – the selfishness, the judgment, the lack of forgiveness, and the withholding of love that keeps the light of the Good News from so many people. 

 It is said that:  'A community of people dies... when the questioning stops'. When the light arrives so will the answers come.
+++++
References:
homily:  fr peter Dillon

prologue:  Fr Paul W. Kelly

Shutterstock licensed Image:  stock photo ID: 697915306. ISTANBUL, TURKEY - OCTOBER 30, 2015: Deesis - Byzantine mosaic in Hagia Sophia church, showing Jesus Christ and John the Baptist (Ioannes Prodromos), probably dates from 1261. By Zzvet


Third Sunday Advent. Year B  (Sunday, December 13, 2020)  (EPISODE: 266)

+++++++++++++

INTRODUCTION
 
In the Name of the Father (+) and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
 
The Lord be with you.
 {{Greetings}} welcome everyone, we gather -  Ponder with reverence, God's word and sacrament. As we continue on our Advent journey. We now light the third Advent candle (the Rose Candle). Also known as the "Shepherd's Candle," it reminds us of the Joy the world experienced at the coming birth of Christ.
 
{The Presider lights the third candle}
 
O Lord and leader of Israel. Come and save us with your mighty power. Lord Have Mercy.
 
O Stock of Jesse, Come to deliver us, without delay. Christ have mercy.
 
O Key of David and sceptre of Israel, Come to free those who sit in valley and shadow of death. Lord Have mercy.
 
(no Gloria in Advent)
 
COLLECT:
 
Let us Pray:
O God, who see how your people
faithfully await the feast of the Lord's Nativity,
enable us, we pray,
to attain the joys of so great a salvation
and to celebrate them always
with solemn worship and glad rejoicing.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit. God, forever and ever.
 
++
 
Prayer after Communion
 
We implore your mercy, Lord,
that this divine sustenance may cleanse us of our faults
and prepare us for the coming feasts.
Through Christ our Lord.


+++++++++++++++++++++
Memorial Acclamation
3. Save us, Saviour of the world, for by your Cross and Resurrection you have set us free.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
PREFACE: Advent II
EP III
Communion side.  pwk:  LH
(theme variation: 3 )
(pre+post variation: 3)
++++
{Many thanks for participating in this time of praise, worship and reflection upon our God's infinite love.}

Go forth, the Mass is ended.

++++++++
Archive of homilies and reflections:  http://homilycatholic.blogspot.com.au
To contact Fr. Paul, please email:  paulwkelly68@gmail.com

To listen to my weekly homily audio podcast, please click this link here.
NB - It is often a week or so Ahead:  https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/tracks

You are welcome to subscribe to Fr Paul's homily mail-out by sending an email to this address: paulkellyreflections+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Further information relating to the audio productions linked to this Blog:
"Faith, Hope and Love - Christian worship and reflection" - Led by Rev Paul Kelly

"O Come. Lord. (Advent)" - In Memory of Paolo Mario (Paul) Giacomantonio (1968-2020).
By Paul W. Kelly.  Based on the Ancient church "O Antiphons" of Advent. 
Arranged and sung, with additional lyrics, By Stefan Kelk, 2020.

 [ Production - KER - 2020]

May God bless and keep you.

Extra Text : unspoken for Advent: -
             Roman Missal, 3rd edition, 2010, (ICEL)
            
             Scriptures - New Revised Standard Version: © 1989, and 2009 by the NCC-USA. 
            
             "The Psalms" by The Grail - 1963, 2009.
            
             Prayers of the Faithful - Robert Borg "Together we pray" - (1993) .+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++