VATICAN - THE POPE’S REFLECTIONS AT SUNDAY ANGELUS: “TO KNOW THAT GOD IS NOT DISTANT, BUT CLOSE, NOT INDIFFERENT, BUT COMPASSIONATE, NOT A STRANGER, BUT A MERCIFUL FATHER WHO FOLLOWS US LOVINGLY WITH RESPECT FOR OUR FREEDOM, IS A MOTIVE OF PROFOUND JOY WHICH THE ALTERNATING EVENTS OF EVERY DAY CANNOT AFFECT”

Vatican City (Fides Service) – The Liturgy of the 3rd Sunday of Advent, also called Gaudete Sunday, contains a repeated and explicit call to joy, to rejoice, as St Paul recommends: " Rejoice in the Lord always. … The Lord is near!" (Phil 4,4-5). “Advent is a season of joy because it makes us relive expectation for the happiest event in history: the birth of the Son of God to the Virgin Mary” Pope John Paul II said to the visitors gathered in St Peter’s Square on 14 December before reciting the Angelus with them.
“To know that God is not distant, but close, - said the Pope - not indifferent, but compassionate, not a stranger, but a merciful father who follows us lovingly with respect for our freedom is a motive for profound joy which the alternating events of every day cannot affect”. He then recalled an unmistakable characteristic of Christian joy “it can live alongside suffering because it is based entirely on love”: the Lord who takes human flesh “comes to give us his own joy, the joy of loving.”
After leading the recitation of the Angelus prayer the Pope greeted thousands of Roman children who had brought their little Christmas Crib statues of Baby Jesus to be blessed by the Pope before putting them in the Nativity Scenes at home. The Pope said to the children: “when you put the Baby Jesus figure in the manger say a prayer for me and for all the people in difficulty who turn to the Pope ”. (S.L.) (Fides 15/12/2003 – lines 16; words 237)