20181221
REJOICING WITH THOSE
WHO REJOICE
21 DECEMBER,
2018, Friday, 3rd Week, Advent
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Violet.
EITHER:
|
First reading
|
|
Song of Songs 2:8-14 ©
|
|
See how my Beloved comes, leaping on the mountains
|
I hear my Beloved.
See how he comes
leaping on the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
My Beloved is like a gazelle,
like a young stag.
See where he stands
behind our wall.
He looks in at the window,
he peers through the lattice.
My Beloved lifts up his voice,
he says to me,
‘Come then, my love,
my lovely one, come.
For see, winter is past,
the rains are over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth.
The season of glad songs has come,
the cooing of the turtledove is heard
in our land.
The fig tree is forming its first figs
and the blossoming vines give out their
fragrance.
Come then, my love,
my lovely one, come.
My dove, hiding in the clefts of the rock,
in the coverts of the cliff,
show me your face,
let me hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet
and your face is beautiful.’
OR:
|
Alternative First reading
|
|
Zephaniah 3:14-18 ©
|
|
The Lord, the king of Israel, is in your midst
|
Shout for joy, daughter of Zion,
Israel, shout aloud!
Rejoice, exult with all your heart,
daughter of Jerusalem!
The Lord has repealed your sentence;
he has driven your enemies away.
The Lord, the king of Israel, is in your
midst;
you have no more evil to fear.
When that day comes, word will come to
Jerusalem:
Zion, have no fear,
do not let your hands fall limp.
The Lord your God is in your midst,
a victorious warrior.
He will exult with joy over you,
he will renew you by his love;
he will dance with shouts of joy for you
as on a day of festival.
|
Responsorial Psalm
|
|
Psalm
32(33):2-3,11-12,20-21 ©
|
Ring out your joy to the
Lord, O you just; O sing him a song that is new.
Give thanks to the Lord upon the harp,
with a ten-stringed lute sing
him songs.
O sing him a song that is new,
play loudly, with all your
skill.
Ring out your joy to the
Lord, O you just; O sing him a song that is new.
His own designs shall stand for ever,
the plans of his heart from
age to age.
They are happy, whose God is the Lord,
the people he has chosen as
his own.
Ring out your joy to the
Lord, O you just; O sing him a song that is new.
Our soul is waiting for the Lord.
The Lord is our help and our
shield.
In him do our hearts find joy.
We trust in his holy name.
Ring out your joy to the
Lord, O you just; O sing him a song that is new.
|
Gospel Acclamation
|
Alleluia, alleluia!
Key of David, who open the gates of the
eternal kingdom,
come to liberate from prison
the captive who lives in darkness.
Alleluia!
|
Or:
|
Alleluia, alleluia!
Emmanuel,
our king and lawgiver,
come and save us,
Lord our God.
Alleluia!
|
Gospel
|
Luke 1:39-45 ©
|
|
Why should I be honoured with a visit
from the mother of my Lord?
|
Mary set out and went as quickly as she
could to a town in the hill country of Judah. She went into Zechariah’s house
and greeted Elizabeth. Now as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the
child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave
a loud cry and said, ‘Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the
fruit of your womb. Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my
Lord? For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for
joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord
would be fulfilled.’
REJOICING WITH THOSE WHO REJOICE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ Songs 2:8-14
or Zep 3:14-18a; Ps 33; Luke 1:39-45 ]
Are you in the winter of
your life? What
does it mean to live in winter? Winter is a time when the weather is cold and
wet. The skies are grey and the day is short whilst the night is long. It
is gloomy. Everything is stagnated and life slows down. Nothing
grows. The trees are bare, without leaves and without fruits. So if
you are gloomy, stagnated, stifled and there is no future or joy or love in
your life, you are going through the winter of your life. This is a most
trying period because we feel alone and we live in darkness.
However, the Lord
assures us that we need not live in this manner. Advent, being a season
of Hope, assures us that winter will soon be over. This is what the first reading from
the book of Song of Songs says, “My Beloved lifts up his voice, he says to me,
‘Come then, my love, my lovely one, come. For see, winter is past, the rains
are over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth. The season of glad songs
has come, the cooing of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree is
forming its first figs and the blossoming vines give out their fragrance.”
What we need is to
welcome the Lord into our lives.
The cause of our winter is because we have not invited the Lord into our
lives. We have been living our lives without Him and His guidance.
We live independently from Him and of Him. Consequently, we allow sin to
control our lives. A sinful life causes us to live an ignorant life
resulting in broken and failed relationships, irresponsibility, selfish
indulgence and a self-centered life. There is no peace, no joy and no
free freedom, since we are under the bondage of sin. Indeed, as Jesus
said, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the
other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot
serve both God and money.” (Mt 6:24) This was what Mary, Elizabeth
and John the Baptist did. They welcomed the Lord into their lives.
As a consequence, they too, who received the joy of the Lord, were able to
rejoice with others.
When Mary said “yes” to
God’s invitation to be the mother of our Lord, the Holy Spirit overshadowed her
and she conceived in the power of the Holy Spirit. Filled with the joy and the
presence of God, Mary’s spontaneous response was to bring joy to others.
She did not keep the joy to herself. She did not waste time relishing her
call to divine motherhood. She did not bask in the thought of her own
glory and honour of being the mother of the Saviour. Nay, her thoughts
were focused not on herself and her dignity as the mother of our Lord but on
her elderly cousin Elizabeth who was pregnant in her old age. Her
immediate reaction was to go out and help her. And that was what she
did. “Mary set out at that time and went as quickly as she could to a
town in the hill country of Judah.” She did not delay any longer, for
Elizabeth was already in the trimester of her pregnancy. She needed her
help and so she went with joy.
Indeed, a sign that we
have welcomed the Lord into our lives is when we are filled with joy, a joy
that is not contained within oneself but is shared with others. Mary wanted to share the joy of
Elizabeth. She went there to congratulate her and to offer her
assistance. She was delighted to hear that Elizabeth was able to conceive
and had her shame taken away. She did not go there with the intention of
announcing that she was chosen to be the mother of our Lord. She did not
go there to compare her joy or the privileges that God had blessed her with
that of Elizabeth’s. She went there out of joy and charity.
Christian joy is to be able to rejoice with others. St Paul wrote,
“Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in
harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with
people of low position. Do not be conceited. (Rom 12:15f)
Indeed, it was Elizabeth
who welcomed the Lord in the womb of Mary, and under the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit, confirmed the truth and the promise of the angel to Mary that she
had indeed conceived the Lord in her womb. Mary had not yet told Elizabeth about the
angel’s message. “She went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth.
Now as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb and
Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, ‘Of
all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your
womb.” It was the Holy Spirit that inspired Elizabeth to recognize
that the Lord was with and in Mary. Hence, she declared, “Why should I be
honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord?”
Here again, we see the
fruits of welcoming the Lord into our lives. To welcome Jesus is to welcome the Holy
Spirit. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth was able to recognize
the presence of our Lord in Mary. Again, filled with the Holy Spirit,
Elizabeth was happy for Mary. She did not envy Mary’s part in the plan of
God’s salvation. She was not envious that Mary was chosen to be the
mother of the Saviour whereas she was only chosen to be the mother of the Messiah’s
forerunner. She did not feel inferior to Mary or resentful of God’s
blessings for her.
She trusted in the
Lord’s designs, as
the psalmist says, “His own designs shall stand for ever, the plans of his
heart from age to age. They are happy, whose God is the Lord, the people he has
chosen as his own. Our soul is waiting for the Lord. The Lord is our help
and our shield. In him do our hearts find joy. We trust in his holy
name.” Indeed, when we are filled with the joy and love of God, we accept
whatever the Lord has designed for us, knowing that we are all part of God’s
plan and that whichever role He gives us to play, it is the best and most
fitting for us. To desire another role that is not ours will not bring us
happiness because the office, vocation and cross that the Lord gives to us just
befit us.
Conversely, a clear sign
that we do not have the Lord with us is when we cannot rejoice with
others. There
are many who cannot rejoice with those who rejoice. When they do well in
their studies, get a promotion in their office, strike lottery, find a partner
in life, or conceive a child, instead of celebrating with them, we compare them
with the blessings we have. We feel that God is not fair because He has
blessed others more than us. So even when we are called to celebrate with
them, our heart is resentful and deep in our hearts, we are not rejoicing but
lamenting and sometimes even cursing.
Finally, we have John
the Baptist who leapt with joy. He too was sanctified in the womb of Elizabeth when he
encountered the Lord. John the Baptist was so filled with the Holy Spirit
and the Word of God that he became such a great prophet that all the peoples
recognized that he came from God. Some even thought he was the Messiah to
come. He was filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb of Elizabeth,
fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah when under the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, he said, “He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is
born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their
God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of
Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the
disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous – to make ready a people prepared
for the Lord.” (Lk 1:15-17) For
this reason too, the Church celebrates not just the death anniversary of John
the Baptist but his birthday as well.
So as we come nearer to
Christmas, we must open our hearts to welcome the Lord into our lives. We can welcome Him first and
foremost through a good celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation,
spending time before the Eucharist in adoration, receiving Him in Holy
Communion at mass, reaching out to our friends and loved ones, especially
caring for the elderly, the lonely and the abandoned, giving a helping hand to
the poor and the sick and weak. By reaching out to them, the joy and love
of the Lord will enter into our hearts and we will be filled with overwhelming
joy and peace because we know He is in us and with us.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment