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Gaudete: Rejoice the Lord is Near

His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation (Lk 1:4).

Once again on this third Sunday of Advent we encounter the figure of John the Baptist, “the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight His paths.’” In the Liturgy of Advent John bears witness to the Messiah through his call to repentance; an invitation that is ancient and ever new, and ever relevant. Just as important as the message, however, is John’s attitude towards the message. We are familiar with the famous saying: the medium is the message. The greatness of John the Baptist lies in his humility and self-effacement; these were both his medium and message for the Saviour to whom he gave testimony in meek and humble of heart. Of the Saviour the Prophet Isaiah said, “He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms, he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young” (Is 40:11).

John the Baptist is set before us as a model for our own Christian commitment and proclamation, individually and collectively and especially liturgically; for it is in the sacred liturgy that Christ is both proclaimed and received. Here we come to hear the proclamation and to be formed by divine teaching. The celebration of the Mass is both the school and feast of faith and this medium also is the message. Christianity is a religion principally and fundamentally concerned with adoring, loving, and serving the one true God, in which man’s salvation and the very content of love of neighbour consists. Christianity is inherently bound up with sacrifice and sacrament, by which we profess our faith in God and give ourselves to Him in love. Here we endeavour to worship in spirit and in truth. The liturgy of the Church is the true worship of the true God through which we seek union with God—a mystical marriage with Him; and this is brought about through the Church’s prayer, especially the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Apart from this way of life, a life centred on the worship of God in the sacred liturgy, there is error, folly, despair, horror, and destruction—the whole history of fallen mankind, which wages war against the Lamb of God to whom John the Baptist gave testimony.

Praise the Lord

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