[It’s Gaudete Sunday! The word means “rejoice!” But why? What do we have to rejoice about? View the video of the homily here. As always, it’s a little more involved than the text.
It’s been a tough week here in the Walsh family,
My uncle works at an Advent calendar factory, but he got fired. All he did was take a few days off?
It was not unexpected, whenever you work with Advent calendars your days are numbered.
So anyway, if any of you were looking for a biblical mandate to participate in the warm clothing drive, I refer you to today’s gospel wherein John the Baptist tells the people: “Whoever has two cloaks should share with the person who has none.”
The Third Sunday of Advent is called Gaudete Sunday for a reason. The word means “Rejoice!” And sure enough, the word joy or rejoice or something similar appears no less than thirteen times in the readings for this week. Okay, so what are we to rejoice about?
The prophet Zephaniah exhorts us to rejoice for several reasons, namely that a) the Lord has removed the judgment against us and our sins are forgiven, b) he as turned away our enemies, c) the Lord is in our midst, and d) we have no more misfortune to fear.
Paul also tells to rejoice because “the Lord is near.”
Finally, in Luke, we see that all the people were filled with expectation for the coming of the messiah.
We tend to forget that life was a lot tougher in ancient times. About a quarter to a third of all babies in the Roman Empire did not survive their first year. If you made it through your first year, you could expect to live another 34-41 years. Death was much more a part of life. This gave an urgency to all manner of things.
Advent also has a certain urgency to it. It is a time of penitential preparation and expectation. We can also rejoice that the Lord is near.
We look forward to Christ’s coming in glory at the end of the age, but we are also aware that through Church, and especially in the sacraments, the Lord is truly and substantially in our midst in several ways.
Advent helps us to become aware that Christ comes to us in little ways, like our small groups that pray together, in our daily devotions, in our personal reading of scripture and so on.
He also comes to us in sacramental ways, especially in the sacrament of Reconciliation and in the holy sacrifice of the Mass and in adoration.
Finally, we are filled with expectation that the coming of the Lord in glory at the end of the age is near. For the Christian this is cause for rejoicing as we anticipate the fulfillment of our ultimate hope.
Advent is a time for rejoicing in expectation of the coming of the Lord in ways both big and small. May he find us watchful and ready when he comes.