“Rejoicing Sunday” – Fr. Bob’s Homily for Sunday, December 15, 2024

It is surely impossible not to be thrilled by the ringing tones of joy in our first reading today. Listen again to the words: “Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem … The Lord your God is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love.”  The whole of that first reading is vibrant with hope for salvation and victory. It is all the more remarkable, because the rest of the prophet Zephaniah from which this is taken, is of a very different tone indeed.  Other prophecies in the short book of Zephaniah warn of the coming Day of the Lord, seen as a day of doom and disaster. The difference is that it will be a day of doom and disaster for all those who have persistently defied the Lord God and persecuted his faithful ones. But for those faithful ones of the Lord, that Day will be one of victory and rejoicing instead. 
The prophets of the Old Testament consistently talk about the Lord saving a “remnant “of his people. These are called the anawimthe poor ones of the Lord. They are the ones who have continued to remain faithful worshippers of God, and consistently sought to please Him with the holiness of their lives and obedience to His will. Often, that means they are overlooked, marginalized, and despised by the world, because they refuse to compromise the Lord’s commands in order to get on in the world. Because they stand up to the world in defense of God’s teachings, they are often persecuted, ridiculed and hated by the world’s elites, the rich and the powerful. I subscribe to a Catholic website, Centre for Family and Human Rights, a non-profit NGO, which fights at the level of the United Nations as a lobby group for Catholic teaching on marriage and family. This pits them against the full force of the anti-Catholic and pro-LGQBT ideology of the UN, who seem to enjoy plenty of power and influence at an international level, especially in the West. The Centre of Family and Human Rights have doggedly over the years sought to work with the Vatican representatives and third world countries to hold off the attempts of the UN to impose their ideology on the rest of the world. Whenever I go to their web page, I am consistently in amazement how such  a small group with few resources have been able to thwart the attempts of the various UN groups to force through their agenda , most of which seems designed to impose anti-family and anti-marriage measures on peoples in the third world who do not want it, and most of which goes on without many people being aware of it.
I mention this particular group, because they are an example of the “remnant” – the faithful “poor ones of God”, who are continually harassed and targeted by ideologically-driven groups which are fervently anti-Catholic. I see other examples of such groups when I have attended 40 Days for Life rallies outside the Ottawa abortion clinic, where I have watched people being spat on, insulted, jeered by others, and just having to take it, instead of being provoked to displays of anger, which would only play into the hands of their persecutors. I have also read about faithful Catholic trustees who have defended Catholic teaching against those who would try to force Catholic schools to adopt positions totally contrary to Catholic doctrine. Those Catholic trustees have been targeted, threatened and prosecuted for defending Catholic teaching.  And most Catholic parishes are absolutely unconscious of such attacks, and continue to practice their faith, unaware that what they believe and profess is rejected by politicians and leaders/influencers who continue to push forward an ideology which runs contrary to what they are supposed to believe as Catholics. 
It is easy to despair at times, when we see a twisting and distortion of Catholic teaching being foisted on Catholic parishes and dioceses. But then, we must pay attention to prophetic figures who emerge at times of such opposition and push forward the Lord’s agenda. Such people can make a stand and declare, in the words of our responsorial psalm today “Surely God is my salvation, I will trust and will not be afraid / for the Lord God is my strength and my might, he has become my salvation”. Although at times, the opponents of the Lord seem to have the upper hand, we must hold fast to the truth that God is our “salvation, our strength and our might, and great in our midst.”  When we hold this third Sunday of Advent as “Gaudete Sunday”, i.e. “Rejoicing Sunday”. We profess that God’s ultimate plan and purpose for us is for our good, for our salvation, and that every attempt of our enemy, the devil, to prevent that happening is destined for failure. And so we rejoice.
I don’t know, brothers and sisters, how you feel about how the world is getting on these days. Do you think that we are on the brink of a total overthrowing of Christian values, and an imposition of morally destructive agendas? Or do you believe that Jesus Christ is about to intervene in our world to bring in a kingdom of justice, peace, righteousness, healing, and truth? If you believe the former, then you are submitting to a world imbued by fear, totalitarianism, and despair. If you believe the latter, then, you are allowing God to triumph over the forces of defeat, cynicism, limitation and despair, and to introduce his kingdom of love, joy, peace and justice. Which do you choose, brothers and sisters, which do I?