December 12/Third Sunday of Advent
The LORD, your God, is in your midst; he will rejoice over you with gladness,
he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival. ~ Zephaniah 3.17
There have been times along the way when my connection to God simply dropped. Many years ago, for example, as a young mother of two children under two, living in a new city, I felt isolated and spiritually paralyzed. Challenged by the transition from a high-profile job and the bustle of New York City to a daily existence of changing diapers and reading board books, I sank down low. Some days I was unable even to muster a prayer. But God was working on the inside; with the help of a priest and a young nun, who impressed upon me the sure fact of God’s love for me, I crossed through that dark period and had a spiritual reawakening. God had been with me all the time, even though I hadn’t felt it. In those moments when our spiritual connection goes static, we may find what we need in scripture. The good news that threads its way throughout the Bible is that God is with us, always, at every step, even when we don’t know it. He is an abiding presence — strolling with Adam and Eve in the garden, prodding Moses to lead the enslaved Hebrews to freedom, and sending his spirit, in Hebrew ruach, to rest upon his beloved, flawed King David. And today, in Zephaniah’s exuberant outburst, he is the delighted LORD who breaks forth in jubilant song at Israel’s homecoming. A singing God — what a delightful illustration of the divine presence among us, a God who shares our joys and bears our sorrows. As we strive to know the unknowable, God reveals himself to us in the Incarnate Word: swaddled infant, teacher and healer, the Son of God on the cross, who became one of us to save all of us. In our suffering and in our singing, this Lord — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — is truly Emmanuel, God with us.
Exultant, exalted God, Thank you for accompanying me through the peaks and valleys of my life, for weeping with me when I mourn and rejoicing with me when I laugh. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121221.cfm
To hear the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, sing “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGnEggd0OKY
