Photo by Ed Gregory
Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice!
Words from the
opening antiphon of today’s Gaudete
Sunday Mass.
Words from St
Paul’s letter to the Phillipians.
Rejoice!—a
theme echoed throughout today’s Scripture readings.
Rejoice,
even though our world is a mess.
And our country
seems to be ripping itself apart.
Rejoice,
despite personal financial problems, or health problems,
Or
relationship problems.
We all have
those problems.
We can’t
expect God to shield us from them.
He didn’t
shield his own son.
But he does
give us strength to bear them.
Talents to
address them.
And faith and
hope to see beyond them
—and that softens
them.
Rejoice,
not like a fool who’s unaware of those problems.
Or doing
nothing to try to fix them.
But like a
saint who’s aware of the proper perspective of things.
Who’s aware of
what’s truly most important in this life.
...
What would you
have done two thousand years ago
If you heard
your Savior—the Messiah—was coming?
Would you have
rejoiced like that tax collector Zacchaeus?
So excited
you’d scramble up a tree to get a better look at him?
Here we are
today, more than halfway through Advent.
This special
time of preparation.
Preparing ourselves
for Christmas
—for our Savior’s coming into the world.
It might be
hard to work up the excitement that Zacchaeus felt.
Or that the
Three Wise Men felt.
Or that John
the Baptist felt.
They lived it.
We’re just retracing it.
The same way
we do every year.
As we listen
and pray our way through the Scriptures.
As the liturgical
calendar leads us through that full recounting.
His
conception, birth, life, teaching.
His miracles,
passion, death and resurrection.
We already know
that whole story.
Ancient
history from 2,000 years ago.
We’ve retraced
it dozens of times, maybe many dozens.
After all
that, can we expect it to stay fresh and present?
Exciting
enough to trigger rejoicing?
Why not?
Every day is someone’s first day for experiencing Jesus’ coming.
Every day is a
new chance for us to experience his
coming in a new way.
With some
greater insght and appreciation.
Every day,
he’s ready to come more fully to each one of us.
As fully as
we’re ready to receive him.
Coming to us
in Spirit; coming to us in Holy Communion.
So, the coming
is still fresh, it is still present.
And if we feel
a little less excitement today than
they did 2,000 years ago
That can be
offset by our deeper understanding and
appreciation and joy.
We can rejoice, because we already know that
our Savior has come.
As we heard in
Isaiah, he’s come:
To bring glad tidings to the poor,
To heal the brokenhearted,
And to proclaim liberty to the captives.
As we heard in
our Psalm:
He has remembered his promise of mercy.
As we’ve heard
elsewhere in Scripture:
He has shown
us the path through the dessert.
He's boiled
down all the rules and laws to just two simple commands.
Love God, and
love our neighbors as ourselves.
...
Gaudete Sunday
rejoicing has sometimes been called taking
a break
From the work of Advent preparation.
But it’s not really
a break from the preparation—it’s part of it.
An example to ourselves
that we should never forget to rejoice.
No matter how intently
we might be focused on problems or work.
Such as now, during
our current work,
Preparing for our Savior’s coming.
Both that retraced coming, and that present coming.
John the
Baptist was, and is, the perfect example and guide for preparing:
... the voice of one crying out in the desert,
“Make straight the way of the Lord.”
Urging us to prepare
a path for his coming.
Smooth out the
bumps and turns.
Cut off any
detours.
Remove any obstacles
that could impede our reception of him.
How might we do all that?
Maybe start
with a good self-assessment.
What could I
do to make myself better?
What could I
do to make the world better?
Paul’s letter
to the Thessalonians gives us one approach.
Test everything; retain what is good.
Refrain from every kind of evil.
Sounds easy,
but sometimes it’s not so easy to be certain of what is good.
In those cases,
we have that two-pronged test that Jesus gave us.
Does this confirm
my love of God?
Does this confirm
my love of neighbor?
If we apply
that test, we’ll usually see what’s good and what isn’t.
Still, some
issues can be so complex that the test leaves us unsure—
Or even wrong.
But if we’ve done
our best to honestly and sincerely apply the test.
If we’ve put
aside our habitual biases and knee-jerk ideological answers.
God will
forgive our uncertainty and even our error.
In fact, he’ll
praise us for our sincere effort.
And he’ll go
even further than that.
He’ll even
forgive our negligent and intentional sins.
So, with some
preparation on our part,
With some
sincere effort at improvement,
And, especially,
with God’s promise of mercy,
We have every
reason to trust and hope that it’s all going to work out.
That, in the
end, we’ll have what truly matters.
Eternal life in
Heaven.
So, Rejoice!
