Lk 1:46-54
1 Thes 5:16-24
Jn 1:6-8, 19-28
Rejoice always! Pray Constantly! Give thanks in all circumstances;
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Three Sundays ago, we were celebrating that last Sunday of the year: Christ the King. I’m sure it was a great celebration and only more so because the weeks before – probably as far back as September and October – had readings about the doom and the gloom of the Second Coming of Christ, namely Judgment and repentance. If you paid attention to the readings you could see that THE END was near. It was finally punctuated with Christ the King. Because at the end of the world, Christ is the King of Kings and the end will be here, we will be judged, time will stop and eternal moves on to eternity. Hopefully, if you are like me, you will look forward to that time because everything will be made new and perfect and we will behold the Lord in all his glory. If you are worried and scared, then you better stop sinning, repent, and go to confession!!
But what about Advent? One of the most fascinating things about the Catholic Church is the Church’s liturgical calendar: because if you missed the boat on the end of the world, this is the season where you get your second chance. If you did not heed the bitter message of doom and the gloom, the Final Judgment, the End of the World these past few months you get something a little easier to swallow to help you on your way: God is not out to get you. Advent is a season of preparation and a season penance. The first Sunday, you heard about being “Awake!, Keep Watch and Be prepared!” There’s a voice calling out to us, to “Be Alert!” The second Sunday Advent, last week, you heard about a voice calling out: “Prepare the way of the Lord!”; someone great is coming! So these two weeks are calling us to prepare the way for the Lord, to clear our lives and our hearts for the coming of the Lord. That’s why we have these candles, to show that we are keeping vigil and waiting in anxious anticipation for the Lord. It is a good time to ask yourselves, “How have you been preparing this Advent?” In Lent, we prepare for the Resurrection by fasting, giving alms, and prayer. In Advent, it is likewise a time to do some preparation because we wait in anxious and joyful hope.
Now as you can see we are on the third Sunday, the candle that is pink and the vestments are also a different color. The somber, deep-dark purple has lightened to a more joyful color. Today is a day where we rejoice!!! We are almost to Christmas, almost there – two weeks away! Again, how I love the Church in her wisdom, knowing that we are human and how frail we are. We have a small break to relieve the pressure of preparation and reminding us of why and for what we are preparing:
Gaudete Sunday! The Entrance antiphon says from Phil 4:4-5, Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice!! Indeed, the Lord is near! Today is a good day to rejoice. There is much cause for rejoicing. But you might be asking, why should I? Maybe in your life there is not much good going for you. You are out of work or have too much work, relationship problems, your family is struggling or fighting, you are having trouble with your friends at school, final or midterm exams (this is exam week at the seminary, fortunately we have not have any one go crazy yet). In our nation and beyond, the economy is poor, there are protests and wars being fought, people are starving, homeless, and oppressed. Rights are being violated, people are not being heard, and generally, one does not have to turn on the news or read the newspaper very long to see how far down this world is going. It is depressing for me when I read the news, it is depressing for me when I hear about people’s difficulties and sufferings. It’s not a pretty picture.
In the first reading, we read: The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tiding to the afflicted,… to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and opening the prison to those who are bound. My reaction is in two ways:
The first way: “Lord, you want me to do what?!!?!" How can I do that? Isn’t that just a blatant lie? I may have just been ordained, you may want me to bring good tidings to the suffering, but it would help if you would give me actually perhaps give me message that they can actually believe in? This reading really challenges me, as it should challenge you. How are we to rejoice in the midst of the sufferings of this world? How are we tell our friends and family that everything is going to be okay, but in our minds it seems like it is really stretching it. But yet the Lord still tells us to rejoice to tell others to rejoice and bring glad tidings.
But as this message settles in my heart, I start to see what the Lord is saying. Why should my soul exult in God in the midst of this suffering? Because he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness. I have been baptized, confirmed, and will receive the Lord in the Eucharist. That when all life has gotten down and out, and you are literally hit rock bottom, we still have on the garments of salvation, we have the robe of righteousness!!! All is not lost! We are the bridegroom and the bride preparing to meet our Lord. In the darkest time of the year, where the days are getting shorter and shorter, and light seems to be completely defeated, there is hope. It may be true that our life isn’t going very well, but the bottom line is that we still have hope. If all else is lost, we still have this sweet hope and with that hope we can raise our heads and hands to rejoice. St. Paul gives us that comfort and blesses us in the second reading, May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We rejoice because we have this hope that the Lord will come. He has already come 2,000 years ago, he has come into our hearts to dwell and guide us along the path of life, and he will come again in glory to bring us home. If we have kept watch, awake and alert; if we have prepared the way of the Lord to enter into our hearts today, if we have prepared the way of the Lord to enter into this world today, then we have all the reason to be happy and rejoice: we are on our way to salvation!!! We should be excited and joyful.
Gaudete Sunday is our pep-rally, our pep-talk, to help bring Christ into the world, but this begins with helping to bring Christ into our hearts. We bring Christ into the world by first making a home for him in our hearts. Let us renew our commitment in repenting and changing our sinful ways, growing in virtue, knowledge, and understanding. Go to confession and confess those sins that have been locked away in your heart. Christ won’t have room to live there if you keep it cluttered with your junk. He can only help you if you are open to giving it to him. Pray more – not just because you need something but because you want to draw closer to him and thank him for everything, even the sufferings that you are undergoing. If you don’t know what to say, ask him to help you. If your heart is in the right place, you will experience him in a new and more profound way.
Rejoice! I say it again Rejoice! The Lord is near, he is coming, and we must be ready to welcome him!!
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