REJOICE! SAY THAT AGAIN PLEASE!
3 rd Sunday Advent (Year C) December 16, 2012 REJOICE! SAY THAT AGAIN, PLEASE! All three readings could not be any clearer! They are all a call to joy, to optimism, to rejoicing! It is just too bad that the call comes for the third time in as many years, when we apparently have all the reasons in the world to be sad, dejected, and despairing. As I write, news about the more than two scores who were shot to death in Connecticut is still fresh. Whilst the tragedy that befell southern Philippines is by no means fresh news, the number of those who died and those who are missing, increasing by the day, seems always new. Today, Gaudete Sunday, so called because of the command for us Christians “to rejoice,” we feel like being at the crossroads. We feel challenged. We feel tested, even as we feel shaken by recent events that seem to contradict the call and run counter to the teaching. And we are also a little confused, perhaps … So which is which? ...