Homily for the Third Sunday of Advent, Dec. 13, 2020. Isaiah 61:1-11; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24; Gospel of St. John 1:6-28. Theme: The Real Holiday Cheer
Today is Gaudete Sunday, that is, Rejoicing Sunday. It marks the halfway point in Advent and reminds us that Christmas is drawing near. For the rest of this Third Week of Advent, the rose-colored candle of the Wreath is lit instead of a purple one, and the clergy may wear pink colored vestments to visually proclaim that even in the midst of difficulty, our hearts can find joy in God our Savior.
It’s pretty hard to miss this theme throughout our liturgy this Sunday. The Old Testament reading from the prophet Isaiah tells us to “rejoice heartily in the Lord” and St. Paul in the second reading calls us to “rejoice always.” And in case we didn’t get the message of joy found in these two Scriptures, the responsorial that ties them together comes from the newly pregnant Virgin Mary herself and proclaims, “my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!”
To truly grasp God’s message of joyful hope in these readings, I think it helps to know that when Isaiah spoke about rejoicing heartily in the Lord, the people of Israel were being crushed by an oppressive government and economic disaster. They strained to see hope for their future. And St. Paul’s upbeat words about rejoicing were not written from some posh ancient villa in Greece, but while he was on the run for his life, having narrowly escaped a mob in Thessalonica that was bent of killing him for preaching that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah.
I think these facts from Isaiah and Paul are important to remember during this holiday season because we often look for joy to come to us from unrealistic expectations. For many people, this is a time of year when the promise of joy is shattered by occasions for anxiety, family frictions, emotional and physical exhaustion as well as financial debt. There is a great deal of stress for many because preparations for the holidays can get so out of hand. It’s all too easy for the “classic storybook Christmas” found inside of greeting cards and dramatized in Hallmark movies to become a noose around our necks and a nightmare in our dreams.
The sights & sounds of the Season can easily put into our heads the false image of a perfect Christmas, as if such a thing exists. They tell us that we must be surrounded by perfect presents, that are perfectly wrapped and artfully placed under the perfect tree. Then we will gather as the perfect family to eat the perfect meal, while enjoying perfect conversation which is shared by all in perfect harmony. This seems to be our culture’s definition and expectation of holiday cheer.
But what the Scriptures we hear today are urging us on to experience is not this elusive and transient “holiday cheer”. That kind of superficial cheer is created by our surroundings and so it can change in a moment. Rather, God wants us to be people of authentic joy, of true happiness and peace of heart which emerges from within us. It’s something that nothing from the outside can give us and which nothing from the outside can take away from us.
We can have this kind of joy because the Scriptures assure us that God loves each one of us unconditionally. His love is eternal, unchanging, guaranteed. This can be so very hard for us to grasp because our love is so very conditional. We may not always feel it and life around us might not show it, but the decision to trust in God’s love and to rejoice even when it’s hard to do pays off in the long run. This is a truth that we see more clearly in hindsight.
But once we experience and become convinced of God’s personal love, of the truth that he rejoices over us, then there is nothing, absolutely nothing that can take it away. This is the true rejoicing of Gaudete Sunday. This is the authentic holiday cheer of Christmas.
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