Sunday 16
December 2012
3rd Sunday of Advent C
Zephaniah 3:14-18 Psalm Is 12:2-6
Rv.6.1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2.Luke 21:25-28. 34-36.
The Lord your God will dance with shouts of joy for you
The Lord is my strength, my song. He became my saviour
I want you to be happy, always happy in the Lord.
If anyone has two tunics, he should share with the man
who has none.
First reading
Zephaniah
3:14-18
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The Lord has repealed your sentence;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.
Shout for joy! Rejoice! Exult
with all your heart! Have no fear! Why? The Lord is in your midst. He exults
over you with joy. He dances with shouts of joy over you. Can you believe that
God looks at you with such love. Whether you believe or not, it is true. We are
blessed if we can believe it and enjoy his love for us, even in this life.
Canticle
Isaiah
12
The rejoicing of
a redeemed people
Sing
and shout for joy for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.
Truly, God is my salvation,
I trust, I shall not fear.
For the Lord is my strength, my song,
he became my saviour.
With joy you will draw water
from the wells of salvation.
Sing and shout for joy for great in your
midst is the Holy One of Israel.
Give thanks to the Lord, give praise to
his name!
Make his mighty deeds known to the
peoples!
Declare the greatness of his name.
Sing and shout for joy for great in your
midst is the Holy One of Israel.
Sing a psalm to the Lord
for he has done glorious deeds;
make them known to all the earth!
People of Zion, sing and shout for joy,
for great in your midst is the Holy One
of Israel.
Sing and shout for joy for great in your
midst is the Holy One of Israel.
____________________
Second reading
Philippians
4:4-7
I
want you to be happy, always happy in the Lord; I repeat, what
I want is your happiness. Let your
tolerance be evident to everyone: the Lord is very near.
There
is no need to worry; but if there
is anything you need, pray for it, asking God for it with prayer and
thanksgiving, and that peace of God, which is so
much greater than we can understand, will guard your hearts and your thoughts, in Christ Jesus.
Joy and
happiness is the rightful reaction for anyone who has heard the Good News
brought by Jesus, understands and believes it. It is ‘too good to be true’. To God
you are more precious than a small child to his/her mother. The art of being a
Christian is to let God love you.
____________________
Gospel
Acclamation
Is61:1(Lk4:18)
Alleluia, alleluia!
The spirit of the Lord has been given to
me.
He has sent me to bring the good news to
the poor.
Alleluia!
____________________
Gospel
Luke
3:10-18
When all the people asked John, ‘What
must we do?’ he answered, ‘If anyone has two tunics he must share with the man
who has none, and the one with something to eat must do the same.’ There were
tax collectors too who came for baptism, and these said to him, ‘Master, what
must we do?’ He said to them, ‘Exact no more than your rate.’ Some soldiers
asked him in their turn, ‘What about us? What must we do?’ He said to them, ‘No
intimidation! No extortion! Be content with your pay!’
A
feeling of expectancy had grown among the people, who were beginning to think
that John might be the Christ, so John declared before them all, ‘I baptise you
with water, but someone is coming, someone who is more powerful than I am, and
I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandals; he will baptise you with the
Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fan is in his hand to clear his
threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his barn; but the chaff he will
burn in a fire that will never go out.’ As well as this, there were many other
things he said to exhort the people and to announce the Good News to them.
If only you could hear the music
Do you know
that someone loves you? Is passionately in love with you, longs for you
and when you appear your lover dances, sings for joy, and embraces you with so
much affection. Your problem may well be that you do not. It is a tragedy for
you and heartbreak for the One who loves you.
Look at the
Word of God today.
“The Lord your God will exult for joy over you.
He will renew you with his love;
He will dance with shouts of joy for you
As on a day of festival”.
Is it real?
Picture the scene, because its true and it is all about you.
Meet your
Lover today. He is waiting for you to come. Where do you have to go? Go into
your own heart. Realize that your God is there within you, waiting and longing
for you. He does not keep an account of your sins. As the sky is above the
earth so great is his love for you.
If only you
knew the gift of God for you! You would sing and shout for joy. When I was
deaf, I saw people shaking their bodies, gyrating and lifting up their arms. I
thought they were crazy. Then one day I heard the music and I joined them!
The secret is
to hear the music, the music of God’s song over you! Then you will be happy,
and always rejoice in your God. He is your passionate Lover. You will always
have a smile on your face, always be tension-free living a life of tolerance.
If you need anything, you will pray with thanksgiving to the One who loves you.
Will He who loves you so much as to die for you on a Cross, refuse you any good
thing?
John the
Baptist was afraid to touch the sandals of Jesus. However, the least in the
Kingdom of heaven is greater than he is. Your Lover gets down on his knees and
washes your feet. Allow Him to baptise you with the Holy Spirit and so set you
on fire!
God says to
you, “I want you to be happy, always happy in the Lord: I repeat, what I want
is your happiness”. The secret of your happiness lies inside you. Your
happiness is Someone not something.
Father, let me realise that you love me, care for me and that you dance
for joy over me.
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