Dear Friends,
This Third Sunday of Advent is traditionally referred to as “Gaudete Sunday.” The word gaudete is a Latin word which means “rejoice” and it comes from the entrance antiphon for the Third Sunday of Advent, taken from St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, which reads, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near.” We are fortunate this year that the second reading for this Sunday’s Mass consists of a fuller quotation from the Letter of the Philippians containing this line.
What does it mean to rejoice? To rejoice means to find joy in life. But what is joy and how are we to understand it in terms of our faith in Christ? The Greek word for “joy” is chara, and it is used to describe a feeling of inner gladness, delight or rejoicing. In the New Testament, real joy is not to be found in “things” but in spiritual realities. We find joy in God, God’s closeness to us, and our closeness to God. The circumstances of life are not necessarily or even primarily our source of joy. When things are going well, and all seems harmonious and in order in our lives, we can be joyful, feel joyful. But when the circumstances of life become challenging, difficult, or out of sorts, we can still be joyful even in the midst of it all, even if we do not feel it. Why is that? It is because of our faith in God, our absolute trust in God’s goodness and love, and our willingness to accept whatever God wills for us, knowing in the depths of our being that all will, as St. Paul says in his Letter to the Romans, “work out for good.”
If we confine ourselves to looking around at the world of today with its multiple challenges, there is much reason for not being joyful, much reason for allowing ourselves to become consumed by fear, bitterness, and lethargy. The increasing tensions with China and Russia. The economic problems at home with rising inflation, concerns about supply lines. The ongoing concerns about COVID-19 and its ever-evolving variants. These are just to name a few and do not even begin to touch on the uniquely stressful circumstances of each of our own lives.
The words of St. Paul today are needed more than ever. We are to rejoice in the Lord in spite of it all. We do our best as we can, given the circumstances of our lives, but we leave the rest to God, and God will not fail us. In due time and in ways perhaps that may be very surprising to us, God’s plan is being worked out. We ask God to grant us the patience to per-severe, the strength to go on living our lives each day, fully, well, and prudently. We ask God to deepen our faith and trust in him and to renew and strengthen our hope so that we may truly be able to rejoice in the Lord, no matter what may come.
Have a good week!