Gaudete, which means “rejoice,” “be joyful,” is the message of this 3rd Sunday of Advent. That’s why the liturgical color is pink.

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With the birth of Jesus the Messiah, the Sunday tells us to be “joyful in hope” because he has already redeemed us and now we should do our part in saving ourselves.

During the time of John the Baptist, people did not know who or where the Messiah was. People kept looking for him to come in the guise of some kind of Elijah or their imagining.

The people asked John: “Are you the Messiah?” “No, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Make straight his path” (John 1, 23).

The people then kept missing who the Messiah was when in fact he was right in their midst, prompting the Baptist to exclaim, "There is one among you whom you do not know" (Jn 1,26).

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In one of my pilgrimages to the Holy Land, our group visited the tomb of King David highly revered by the Jews. In the course of the tour, I asked the lady tour guide of David’s tomb, “Madame, what about Jesus Christ? How do you regard him?”

The lady looked sharply at me, her face stiffening and blurted, “Jesus Christ was just an ordinary person; he doesn't mean anything to us.” I was taken aback and much embarrassed before the group. I hurriedly left the shrine. I said to myself I would have been buried in the David’s tomb too!

How about our modern times? Would we miss the Lord and worse, reject him like what his countrymen did?

Some say, “If we lived in Christ’s time, we would have loved and followed him.” Is that really true?

Then why is it in our celebration of Christmas, for instance, we are so engrossed with Christmas shopping, gift-giving, eating and drinking that we forget the reason why we’re doing all this?

Or, why don’t we recognize him in our fellowmen especially among the poor, for whom Jesus said: “Whatever you did to the least of my brethren, you did to me?” If we are keenly aware of God’s presence in them, would we abuse, torture or even murder them?

Let’s have faith in the Lord but also exert effort, for instance, to find a livelihood when you are retrenched or waiting to be re-hired.

As the saying goes: “do your best and god will do the rest.”

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Christmas quips. Beggar with outstretched hand says to a wealthy man: “Please, sir, it’s Christmas. Be kind … even if it’s only for a cup of coffee.

Rich man: “Here…this will buy you 10 cups of coffee.”

After a week, the beggar meets the rich man and growls: “Hey, you almost killed me. The 10 cups of coffee caused me hypertension!”

There are two kinds of Christmas shoppers — those who shop until they drop and those who can only window-shop.

An ill-prepared college student taking an exam just before Christmas break wrote on his paper, “Only God knows the answers to these questions! Merry Christmas!”

The professor graded the papers and wrote this note: “God gets 100, you get 0. Merry Christmas, too!”

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Thank you — Here’s what one donor to our “Adopt A Seminarian” scholarship program wrote: “My sons have no vocation to the priesthood so I might as well help others who are in the seminary already.” Very inspiring.

Donate any amount or sponsor a seminarian's schooling good for one year. For inquiry, e-mail: [email protected].