Philippians 4:4-7
The Lord is near.
Rejoice in the Lord
always; again I will say,
Rejoice. Let all men
know your forbearance.
The Lord is at hand.
Have no anxiety about
a ny t h i n g , b u t in
everything by prayer and
s u p p l i c a t i o n w i t h
thanksgiving let your
requests be made known
to God. And the peace of
God, which passes all
understanding, will keep
your hearts and your
minds in Christ Jesus.
Gospel "What shall we do?" Luke 3:10-18
And the multitudes asked him, "What then shall we do?" And he answered them, "He who has two coats, let
him share with him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise." Tax collectors also came to be
baptized, and said to him, "Teacher, what shall we do?" And he said to them, "Collect no more than is appointed you." Soldiers also asked him, "And we, what shall we do?" And he said to them, "Rob no one by violence or by
false accusation, and be content with your wages."
As the people were in expectation, and all men questioned in their hearts concerning John, whether perhaps he were the Christ, John answered them all, "I baptize you with water; but he who is mightier than I is coming, the
thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His
winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he
will burn with unquenchable fire." So, with many other exhortations, he preached good news to the people.
Liturgical Reflections
GAUDETE SUNDAY
Zephaniah 3:14-18a He will rejoice over you with
shouts of joy.
Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion;
shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult
with all your heart, O daughter of
Jerusalem! The LORD has taken
away the judgments against you,
he has cast out your enemies. The
King of Israel, the LORD, is in
your midst; you shall fear evil no
more. On that day it shall be said
to Jerusalem: "Do not fear, O
Zion; let not your hands grow
weak. The LORD, your God, is in
your midst, a warrior who gives
victory; he will rejoice over you
with gladness, he will renew you
in his love; he will exult over you
with loud singing as on a day of
festival.
[PSALM]
I SAIAH 12:2 -6
RESPONSE: CRY OUT WITH JOY
AND GLADNESS: FOR AMONG YOU IS
THE GREAT AND HOLY O NE OF
I SRAEL.
You will say in that day: "I will give
thanks to thee, O LORD, for though
thou wast angry with me, thy anger
turned away, and thou didst comfort
me. "Behold, God is my salvation; I
will trust, and will not be afraid; for
the LORD GOD is my strength and
my song, and he has become my
salvation." With joy you will draw
water from the wells of salvation. And
you will say in that day: "Give thanks
to the LORD, call upon his name;
make known his deeds among the
nations, proclaim that his name is
exalted. "Sing praises to the LORD,
for he has done gloriously; let this be
known in all the earth. Shout, and sing
for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for Holy
One of Israel."
16TH December 2012
CRY O UT WITH JOY AND G LADNESS: TH E LO RD IS NEAR
By Fr. David Fomanka NKONG
Gospel Acclamation Isaiah 61:1
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor
REFLECTION Today the Liturgy recommends the use of a
rose coloured vestment instead of violet. The
idea is to highlight the element of rejoicing, a
concept from which this Sunday takes its name:
Gaudete Sunday, or Sunday of Rejoicing. The
expression Gaudete (Rejoice) constitutes the
first word of the Introit: “Gaudete in Domino
semper: iterum dico, gaudete: Dominus prope
est.” [Rejoice in the Lord always: again I say,
rejoice: the Lord is near”]. Yes, Christmas is
at the corner. The Lord is at hand.
In the Liturgy of the word today, the
Church presents before us the prophetic
message of Zephaniah, a prophet who is
associated with the early years of the reign of
Josiah, and who preceded and influenced
Jeremiah. At this time the worship of false
gods, namely, the sun, the moon and the stars,
and the existence of court ministers loyal to the
regime of Assyria received condemnation from the
prophet. The prophet Zephaniah confronted rites that
were totally foreign to the monotheistic traditions of the Patriarchs and Moses and spoke of the approaching
judgment on the day of the Lord, when the Lord will
come to judge the nations and pronounce condemnation
on His enemies. However, while the Prophet
reprimanded the people, he also announced the Promise
in spite of the unfaithfulness of Judah. This is due to the
mercy which the Lord will exhibit, causing Him to
spare a holy remnant, a group that will enjoy peace.
What we have for our reflection today is an excerpt of the shouts of joy which the restored remnants would
sing. From this hymn the Liturgy draws the theme of
joy and places it within the context of divine clemency,
restoration, redemption, or liberation: “Sing aloud, O
daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult
with all your hearts, O daughter of Jerusalem! The
Lord has taken away the judgments against you, he has
cast out your enemies.” But the Prophet sees something
more: he pictures the Lord in the midst of Israel, with
such a presence, every fear of evil disappears, because
Israel will again embrace “theocracy”: The Lord will be
their King. As King, the Lord in the midst of Israel will be
the one fighting on their behalf during battle. He will be the
one guaranteeing victory for His chosen people. He, the
Lord will also rejoice over Zion with gladness, renewing
Zion in His love, exulting over Jerusalem amidst loud
hymns of joy in the manner of a festival. The prophet is
thinking of the Day of Judgment which the Lord will one
day hold to receive back from His enemies the fallen
children of His. This is Good news and demands that Israel
prepares, and looks forward in hope for that victorious and
liberating day.
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice.
Indeed, the Lord is near.” Philippians 4:4-5
[Entrance Antiphon]
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. [Collect - Advent III]
THIS WEEK LIGHT THREE CANDLES
Advent Wreath
The Responsorial Psalm is taken from the
Book of the Prophet Isaiah. He is equally talking
of the restoration of Israel, envisaging a Day when the Lord will make a highway from Assyria
similar to the path of the exodus. In connection
with this day, the Prophet notes as Zephaniah
does, of the reversal of situations. In a similar
hymn of thanksgiving, Israel is made to sing as an
individual, thanking the Lord for letting go of His
anger and replacing it with a heart that is
consoling. The Liturgy presents us with the hymn
acknowledging God as the personal liberator of the one who has been redeemed. In this way, the
saved Israelite pledges his trust in God and
declares how his fear has been eliminated, thanks
to the kind of person he now considers God to be:
“My Strength, My Song, My Salvation”,
reminiscent of the song of victory sung by Israel
after crossing the Sea of Reeds.
The Prophet sees this liberation time as a
moment of joyful drawing of water from the wellsprings of salvation. This is a way of
speaking to indicate the direct access God’s saved
people will have to the source of all life, to the
spring that vivifies, cleanses and makes whole.
The Day of the Lord, which we await therefore,
will be a day of thanksgiving, a day when we
shall offer petitions calling on the Lord’s name
with a surety that will guarantee prompt reply. In
turn, we shall make know God’s might deeds to
the nations; proclaiming not our names, our
merits and our abilities, but the glorious name of
God. We shall acknowledge Him as the true Lord
who deserves all praise, exaltation and
thanksgiving.
As we await His coming, we must be ready
too to "Sing praises to the LORD” who does
glorious things for us. We too must be ready to
make His good deeds known to all the earth. The
Psalm then sounds the rejoicing cry in keeping with
the Gaudete theme: “Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy
One of Israel.”
The rejoicing we are called to manifest today,
therefore, is about the Divine presence and its
implications for those who play host to the King, the
warrior and the redeemer. St. Paul, in his Letter to the
Philippians announces Advent as a time of Divine
proximity: “The Lord is at hand”. He sounds a
persistent call to constant rejoicing in the Lord as a consequence and a worthy response to this Good
news. It is true that when we expect the Lord to bring
us liberation, there is a danger that we may grow
impatient. The apostle to the Gentiles insists that our
joy must be constant so much so that all peoples may
know how patient we have been.
Patient waiting in a spirit of rejoicing is what the
Liturgy of today is highlighting. The one who is
patient, who forbears, is free from every fears, every form of distress, all anxieties as he waits in joyful
hope for the coming of the Saviour. The one who lives
in enduring vigilance and hopefulness is constant in
prayer and entreats the Lord in a spirit of
thanksgiving. Only in this way do our hearts find
peace. Only in this manner do we gain understanding
and accept every condition we live in as founded and
built in Jesus Christ. Only in this way will our
rejoicing at His coming lead us to reap the right fruits
which the joy of Christmas brings.
The Acclamation to the Gospel: “The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring
glad tidings to the poor”, reminds us that those who
Advent 17 - 25th December
are the beneficiaries of the glad tidings; those who are destined to receive the Lord who comes as the
Anointed of God, the Spirit bearer, the Messiah are those who are poor. Scripturally, poverty here must
make us reflect on both our material and spiritual status. We need to rethink the way we prepare to receive the Lord at Christmas and correct the errors we make in thinking that it is a rich, expensive or
materialistic preparation that counts more than the call to put on poverty and simplicity in order that we
are enriched by the true riches of the Divine Son, who comes with His gifts at Christmas: above all the
gift of His Holy Spirit, the gift of Humility, the gift of lowliness.
The Gospel has the crucial leading question: so, “What shall we do?” It is a question addressed to
John the Baptist as he cries out in the wilderness asking that we prepare and receive his baptism of
repentance for the forgiveness of sins. For John, therefore, preparation for Christmas has a moral import.
It has a practical implication. It demands a daily response that must affect attitudes of those who mean to
wait in a genuine spirit of rejoicing. Joy and the just life are necessarily complimentary. He tells the multitude who asks him this guiding question: “What shall we do?” to share, not in a lavished manner of
giving all and staying with nothing, not even in the manner
of giving our excesses, but of making sure that what can go
for two goes for two, the self inclusive: “He who has two goats…let him share with him who has none.” John’s
counsels hold good for any material, intellectual, spiritual or
other such shareable gifts.
The preparatory Christmas rejoicing admits of kind
consideration for the wellbeing of the neighbor. It demands
that any such practices that open us to a life of cheating,
extortion and exploitation, be it in the economic, political,
judicial, religious systems or even in our day to day dealings
with others, need to be eliminated. John is emphatic and direct. To tax-collectors he says:“Collect no more than is
appointed you.” To soldiers the harbinger decries acts of
terrorism, vandalism, violent robbery or wrong acquisition of
other’s property or even reputation through false accusation.
These are the societal ills that rob the weak and the
vulnerable of their cause for rejoicing. When we question
why there is roadside bribery, many often think it is because
the law-enforcement officers are not well paid. John is aware
that even from his time, those who tend to extort can conveniently be contented with what they receive as their
wages. We need to set greed aside.
Why must all these preparations be made? Luke justifies
this call as he invites all to reflect on the difference between
John and Jesus Christ. In this Gospel, John is placed in the
sequence of Prophetic figures and his teaching will become
material for Christ to use against the Pharisees and the elders
of the people. We have seen how in admonishing the crowd
he brings out one of Luke's favourite characteristics, the right use of possessions as an important step towards accepting the
coming Christ. We have also noted how John calls on his
hearers to give up extortion, blackmail, wrong acquisition of
wealth, accumulation and so on. The haves must share with
the have-nots.
“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and
with fire” (Jesus’ Baptism)
Now, in defining the role of John, Luke causes us
to meet John as a precursor to Christ, a harbinger, a
forerunner, a herald of the Messiah. We clearly see the superiority Jesus commands over John in the
latter’s own declarations: "I baptize you with water;
but he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of
whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; he will
baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”
Hence, the strength and the nature of baptism they
administer marks the superiority of the coming Christ.
The self-description or attributes of John to himself as
an unworthy servant helps the superiority-inferiority emphasis. Indeed, John insists that those who would
fail to respond positively to the prophetic call to
prepare for the coming of the Messiah, will be like
unfruitful trees that are cut off at the roots or like
winnowed chaff blown away by the wind.
Who can determine if one’s preparation is proper
or not? The Collect of the celebration of today
answers this question. It address God as that one who
sees how His people faithfully await the feast of the Nativity of Christ. In this way, the Church means to
take away any form of deception, since, we are not
preparing to please people around us, but to be
faithful to the Covenant relationship that exists
between us and God. It is for this reason that the
Father is implored to enable us, His chosen people, to
come to the joys of so great a gift of salvation and to
cause us to celebrate this moment - as we are now
doing - with solemn worship and glad rejoicing. May
this prayer be heard again by the Father, and may He
grant our requests this advent to the glory of His
Name.
INTERCESSIONS FROM THE LITURGY
OF THE HOURS - VESPERS WK 1 & 3
We pray to the Lord who is the way, the
truth and the life
R/ Come, and remain with us, Lord
Gabriel announced your coming to the
Virgin Mary: Son of the Most High,
come to claim your kingdom. R/
John the Baptist rejoiced to see your
day: come, bring us your salvation. R/
Simeon acknowledged you, Light of
the World: bring your light to all
people of goodwill. R/
We look for you as watchmen look for
the dawn: you are the sun that will
wake the dead to new life. R/
READINGS WITHIN THE WEEK–
PRIVILEGED SEASON
Monday 17: Gn 49:2,8-10
Mt 1:1-17
Tuesday 18: Jer 23:5-8
Mt 1:18-25
Wednesday 19: Jgs 13:2-7,24-25a
Lk 1:5-25
Thursday 20: Is 7:10-14
Lk 1:26-38
Friday 21: Sg 2:8-14 or Zep 3:14-18a
Lk 1:39-45
Saturday 22: 1Sm 1:24-28
Lk 1:46-56
Rejoice in the Lord always
<Fr. Dav id Nkon g>
Copy right © <2 012> by <Nkong>All Rights Reserv ed
Soprano
Alto
Tenor
Bass
Re joice- in the Lord, al ways,- a gain- I say, re -
aG =80
f k k k k k z ks i ks k k k k z ks
Re joice- in the Lord, al ways,- a gain- I say, re -
a f k k k k k z ks i ks k k k k z ks
Re joice- in the Lord, al ways,- a gain- I say, re -
b fk k k k k z k
ti k
t k k k k z kt
Re joice- in the Lord, al ways,- a gain- I say, re-
b f k k k k k ks ks i k k k k k
joice.- The Lord is at hand. Re joice- in the Lord, al ways,-
a f j k k k k i k k k k k z ks i
joice.- The Lord is at hand.
a f j k k k k i k k k k k z ks i
joice.- The Lord is at hand. Re joice- in the Lord, al ways,-
b fj k k k k i k k k k k z k
ti
joice.- The Lord is at hand. Re joice- in the Lord, al ways,-
b f j k k k k i k k k k k ks ks i
Soprano
Alto
Tenor
Bass
a gain- I say, re joice.- In deed,- He is near. Let
a f ks k k k k z ks j k k k k j z ks J kt
a f ks k k k k z ks j k k k k j z ks J o
a gain- I say, re joice.- In deed,- He is near.
b fkt k k k k z k
tj k k k k j z k
t J o
a gain- I say, re joice.- In deed,- He is near.
b f k k k k k j k k k k j z kt J o
all know thy mer cy,- The Lord is at hand. Have no an xi- e- ties.- In deed,- He is near.
a f k k k k k ks k k k j k k k k ks k z k k k k j
a f m z o ks k k k j l k k k k j
The Lord is at hand. In deed,- He is near.
b f m z o ktk k k j l k k k k j
b f l l l l
Soprano
Alto
Tenor
Bass
Re joice- in the Lord, al ways,- a gain- I say, re -
a f k k k k k z ks i ks k k k k z ks
a f k k k k k z ks i ks k k k k z ks
Re joice- in the Lord, al ways,- a gain- I say, re -
b fk k k k k z k
ti k
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Re joice- in the Lord, al ways,- a gain- I say, re-
b f k k k k k ks ks i k k k k k
joice.- The Lord is at hand. Re joice- in the Lord, al ways,-
a f j k k k k i k k k k k z ks i
a f j k k k k i k k k k k z ks i
joice.- The Lord is at hand. Re joice- in the Lord, al ways,-
b fj k k k k i k k k k k z k
ti
joice.- The Lord is at hand. Re joice- in the Lord, al ways,-
b f j k k k k i k k k k k ks ks i
Soprano
Alto
Tenor
Bass
a gain- I say, re joice.- In deed,- He is near.
a f ks k k k k z ks j k k k k j z ks(3)J
a f ks k k k k z ks j k k k k j z ks J
a gain- I say, re joice.- In deed,- He is near.
b fkt k k k k z kt
j k k k k j z kt J
a gain- I say, re joice.- In deed,- He is near.
b f k k k k k j k k k k j z kt J
2. Let all know thy mercy, the Lord is at hand
Have no anxieties. Indeed, He is near. Refrain
3. By pray'r and supplication, In everything gives thanks
And the God of peace, will keep you in His Love. Refrain
4. Be blameless before Him, The Lord is at hand.
Make firm your hearts, Indeed, He is near. Refrain
5. Behold the Judge is knocking, He's standing at the gates
He who calls is coming, Indeed, He is near. Refrain