What is your image of God? On this third Sunday of Advent we are given a charming but challenging image of God in the first (Hebrew Scripture) reading: The Lord, your God, is in your midst … he will rejoice over you with gladness … he will sing joyfully because of you, as one sings at festivals. Can you picture God singing because of you, God singing because you are alive, God singing joyfully about the way you have lived out your years? And can you picture God being in your midst, “among you” as the psalm response today says, and that “the Lord is near” as our second reading says? To embrace these images we need to change the way we look at ourselves just as much as we have to adjust our ideas about God. We need to be able to rejoice about ourselves. That is one challenge of our readings this Sunday.
– Blog entry by Sister Mary Garascia