December
13, 2015
Third
Sunday of Advent
Saint
of the Day: Saint Lucy, Virgin and Martyr (c.304)
Reading
1
14Shout
for joy, O daughter Zion! Sing
joyfully, O Israel! Be
glad and exult with all your heart, O
daughter Jerusalem! 15The
LORD has removed the judgment against you He
has turned away your enemies; the
King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst, you
have no further misfortune to fear.
16On
that day, it shall be said to Jerusalem: Fear
not, O Zion, be not discouraged!
17The
LORD, your God, is in your midst, a
mighty savior; He
will rejoice over you with gladness, and
renew you in His love, He
will sing joyfully because of you,
18as
one sings at festivals.
Responsorial
Psalm
R.
(6)Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of
Israel.
2God
indeed is my savior; I
am confident and unafraid. My
strength and my courage is the LORD, and He has been my savior. 3With
joy you will draw water
at
the fountain of salvation.
R.
Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of
Israel.
4Give
thanks to the LORD, acclaim His name; among
the nations make known His deeds, proclaim
how exalted is His name.
R.
Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of
Israel.
5Sing
praise to the LORD for his glorious achievement; let
this be known throughout all the earth.
R.
Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of
Israel.
Reading
2
5Your
kindness should be known to all. The
Lord is near.[3] 6Have
no anxiety at all, but in everything, by
prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make
your requests known to God. 7Then
the peace of God that surpasses all understanding
will
guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Alleluia Isaiah 61:1 (see Luke 4:18)
R.
Alleluia, alleluia.
The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because H e has anointed me to
bring glad tidings to the poor.
R.
Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
10The
crowds asked John the Baptist, “What
should we do?” 11He
said to them in reply, “Whoever
has two cloaks should
share with the person who has none. And
whoever has food should do likewise.”
12Even
tax collectors came to be baptized and they said to .Him, “Teacher,
what should we do?” 13He
answered them, “Stop
collecting more than what is prescribed.”
14Soldiers
also asked Him, “And
what is it that we should do?” He
told them,
“Do
not practice extortion, do
not falsely accuse anyone, and
be satisfied with your wages.”
15Now
the people were filled with expectation, and
all were asking in their hearts
whether
John might be the Christ. 16John
answered them all, saying, “I
am baptizing you with water, but
one mightier than I is coming. I
am not worthy to loosen the thongs of His sandals. He
will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.[4] 17His
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 with unquenchable fire.”[5]
Notes on Readings:
[1] Isaiah
12:1-6 - Israel's thanksgiving to the Lord, expressed in language like that of
the Psalms.
[3] Philippinans
4:5 - Kindness: considerateness, forbearance, fairness. The Lord is near: most
likely a reference to Christ's parousia (Philippians 1:6, 10; 3:20-21; 1 Corinthians 16:22), although some sense an echo of Psalm 119:151 and the perpetual
presence of the Lord.
[4] Luke
3:16 - He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire: in contrast to John's
baptism with water, Jesus is said to baptize with the holy Spirit and with
fire. From the point of view of the early Christian community, the Spirit and
fire must have been understood in the light of the fire symbolism of the
pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4); but as part of John's preaching, the Spirit and fire
should be related to their purifying and refining characteristics (Ezekiel 36:25-27; Malachi 3:2-3). See the footnote Matthew 3:11 .
[6] Luke
3:1-20 - Although Luke is indebted in this section to his sources, the Gospel
of Mark and a collection of sayings of John the Baptist, he has clearly marked
this introduction to the ministry of Jesus with his own individual style. Just
as the gospel began with a long periodic sentence (Luke 1:1-4), so too this section (Luke 3:1-2). He casts the call of John the Baptist in the form of an
Old Testament prophetic call (Luke 3:2) and extends the quotation from Isaiah found in Mark 1:3 (Isaiah 40:3) by the addition of Isaiah 40:4-5 in Luke 3:5-6. In doing so, he presents his theme of the universality
of salvation, which he has announced earlier in the words of Simeon (Luke 2:30-32). Moreover, in describing the expectation
of the people (Luke 3:15), Luke is characterizing the time of John's preaching in
the same way as he had earlier described the situation of other devout
Israelites in the infancy narrative (Luke 2:25-26, 37-38). In 3:7-18 Luke presents the preaching of John the Baptist who urges
the crowds to reform in view of the coming wrath (Luke 3:7, 9): eschatological preaching), and who offers the crowds
certain standards for reforming social conduct (Luke 3:10-14): ethical preaching, and who announces to the crowds the
coming of one mightier than he (Luke 3:15-18) : messianic preaching).
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Dear Humanity,
I personally encourage everyone to emulate JESUS' values on LOVE, FAITH, HOPE
and CHARITY, as the humanity has been a failure; which resulted to the more than two (2) years of pandemic and its after-effects on economy, not only here in the Philippines but worldwide.
And the saddest part of it, is that, it affected the POOREST of the POOR to even extremely be more poorer, in exchange of the affluent to be more richer.
Thank you and may GOD bless you and the whole family to have an enjoyed life's journey at home, Church, schools/universities, corporate commitments, public and places of interest.