Third Sunday of Advent – 14th December 2025
Dear brothers and sisters,
This Sunday, in the middle of Advent, the Church speaks to us a word that sometimes feels difficult to accept: rejoice. But this is not an invitation that ignores the pains of life. It is a truth that comes right into the heart of our struggles. Today’s readings tell us that joy is not something added from the outside, but the fruit of believing that God is at work even when our eyes cannot yet see anything.
The prophet Isaiah speaks about a desert that blossoms. This is an image that touches the heart more than the mind. Each of us carries a kind of desert within: a disappointment, a tired soul, a suffering we do not understand, a road we no longer know how to walk. And in that place where we feel nothing can grow anymore, God says: “I will strengthen your weak hands, I will steady your trembling knees, I will come to save you.” God does not avoid our desert – He enters it. Where we see only dryness, He sees the possibility of new life.
The Psalm reminds us that the Lord lifts up those who have fallen and heals the broken-hearted. This is the true face of God: not a strict judge counting our mistakes, but a Father who bends down with gentleness, who places balm on our wounds, who does not hurry to condemn but to restore.
The Letter of James calls us to patience – not a sad or passive patience, but the patience of someone who knows that God works quietly, like rain falling softly and sinking into the soil until it brings fruit. Many times, we want quick answers, visible results, clear signs. But God works with a tenderness that never forces, but slowly transforms everything at the right time.