🕯️This day, liturgically known as "Gaudete" Sunday, marks the midpoint of Advent, allowing the use of rose-colored vestments in place of the penitential purple, symbolizing a pause of joy amidst the expectation of the Savior's coming. In the traditional calendar, the proximity of Christmas is celebrated with an insistent invitation to spiritual rejoicing, for "the Lord is near." The central figure, besides the Pauline exhortation to Christian joy, is Saint John the Baptist, who in the Gospel defines his identity not by what he is, but by whom he announces, presenting himself as the humble voice preparing the way for the Eternal Word. The Church, on this day, renews the hope of the faithful, reminding them that penance is not an end in itself, but a preparation for the supreme happiness of Redemption.
📜Epistle (Phil 4, 4-7)
Brethren: Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I say, rejoice. Let your modesty be known to all men. The Lord is nigh. Be nothing solicitous; but in every thing, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.
📖Holy Gospel (John 1, 19-28)
At that time, the Jews sent from Jerusalem priests and Levites to John, to ask him: Who art thou? And he confessed, and did not deny: and he confessed: I am not the Christ. And they asked him: What then? Art thou Elias? And he said: I am not. Art thou the Prophet? And he answered: No. They said therefore unto him: Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us? What sayest thou of thyself? He said: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaias. And they that were sent, were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said to him: Why then baptizest thou, if thou be not Christ, nor Elias, nor the Prophet? John answered them, saying: I baptize with water; but there hath stood one in the midst of you, whom you know not. The same is He that shall come after me, who is preferred before me: the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to loose. These things were done in Bethania, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
🕊️The Humility of the Voice and the Nearness of the Word
⛪The liturgy of this Third Sunday of Advent masterfully intertwines the imperative of Christian joy with the fundamental virtue of humility, personified in Saint John the Baptist. The Apostle Paul, in the Epistle, commands "Gaudete" — rejoice — not out of a fleeting emotion, but due to the theological certainty that "the Lord is near." This proximity of God is the efficient cause of our inner peace, that which surpasses all understanding. However, to receive this divine presence, the Gospel presents us with the indispensable condition: self-emptying. When questioned by religious leaders, the Baptist does not claim titles of honor for himself; he defines his existence solely in relation to Christ. Saint Augustine, meditating on this mystery, establishes a luminous distinction: "John is the voice; but the Lord is the Word who was in the beginning. John is the voice that passes away; Christ is the eternal Word from the beginning. Take away the word, and what is the voice? Where there is no understanding, there is only an empty sound" (Saint Augustine, Sermon 293). Thus, John teaches us that for Christ to increase in us, our selfish "self" must decrease; we must be merely the voice that carries the Word, not the noise that drowns It out. The "modesty" requested by Saint Paul is, therefore, the exterior reflection of this interior order, where the soul, pacified by grace and free from worldly anxiety, becomes a straight path in the desert of this world for the arrival of the King. John's baptism of water was a sign of penance, but it pointed to the One who would baptize with the Holy Spirit; recognizing our unworthiness, like John who dared not untie the Master's sandals, is paradoxically the step that allows us to "rejoice always in the Lord."
🇺🇸See English version of the critical articles here.
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