Why Rejoice?

The Third Sunday of Advent is traditionally called “Gaudete” Sunday based on the Latin word that is the first word of today’s entrance antiphon: “Rejoice in the Lord always!” In the midst of the penitential season of Advent and as we approach the darkest day of the year at the Winter Solstice, the Church encourages us to rejoice. Why on earth should we be rejoicing at this particular time? Once again, the readings chosen for the day provide us with the answer.

The first reading from the prophet Zephaniah is a cheerful passage in the midst of a prophetic book that is otherwise quite dour. The prophet Zephaniah appears in Judah before the Babylonian captivity to warn the people of Israel to stop worshipping false gods and to repent of the injustices they are committing against others. In the midst of that warning comes this passage about rejoicing, even though God’s judgment is imminent upon Israel. He urges the people to rejoice in Israel’s future deliverance because “the king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst, you have no further misfortune to fear.” The age of the Messiah will bring forth this confidence: God is with us, and we must rejoice because God is present, even in the darkest hour.

Paul’s letter to the Philippians was written while Paul was in prison, and yet he urges the Christian community to rejoice because “the Lord himself is near. Dismiss all anxiety from your minds.” The Lord is near not in the sense of his second coming, but rather because God is spiritually and physically near to us in all our needs. Why, then, should we fear anything? Very often we are afraid because we have looked for happiness in things that cannot really make us happy. As the spiritual writer Francis Fernandez states, “We need a firm foundation for our happiness. It cannot depend exclusively on changeable circumstance like good news, good health, peace and quiet, enough money to bring up the family comfortably and having all the material possessions we would like. All these things are good in themselves if they do not separate us from God, but they are unable to provide us with real happiness” (In Conversation with God, vol. 1, p. 115).

The Gospel reading provides us with a group of people who had a comfortable life and then some. From a material point of view, the tax collectors who come to John the Baptist had it good, and yet we find them coming to John looking for authentic happiness. John urges those who come to him to practice the deeds of justice and mercy in preparation for the coming Messiah who will bring judgment upon his arrival. Luke states that John “preached the good news to the people.” The Greek word for “good news” was used by secular rulers to denote messages of salvation from secular rulers and the Roman emperor. In adopting this term to denote the message and work of Jesus the Messiah, the New Testament writers again challenge the structures of the day: salvation and peace – good news – come only from God through Jesus the Messiah, not from the secular realm.

As we await the coming of the Messiah at Christmas, let us remember that he is already near and present to us. We need not fear as we practice the works of justice and mercy in our world that needs them so desperately. If we have not been as diligent in those practices, now is the time to begin. Let us conclude our reflection with words from the theologian Karl Rahner, “For the Lord has come and yet he is still coming. He is already here, but is in our midst, still, as the hidden God; and so we are still men who have no lasting city here, pilgrims between time and eternity, men who must still await God’s coming, men who keep Advent even at Christmastime and must remember that we are still at the beginnings, still on pilgrimage; that we must make our way through time, amid sorrow and distress, but with a heart full of faith, toward the eternal light that still awaits us. What this means is that eternity is not yet here. But it does not mean that we must not cherish the light that is already lit, and it does not mean that we ought to turn our backs upon this world. It means that we ought not to neglect the other light…You are here. You are the Lord of my faith, you are my strength and delight. You are the Christmas in the Advent of my existence” (Biblical Homilies, p. 65, 67).