A Homily for Gaudete Sunday - the Third Sunday of Advent

+ Gaudete in Domino semper: iterum dico, Gaudete, sings the famous Introit from which this Sunday takes its more popular name, giving a foretaste of the Epistle of this Holy Mass. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let all men know your forbearance. The Lord is at hand. Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

My brothers and sisters, on this third Sunday of Advent, with a mere eleven days before Christmas, each of us finds ourselves in different circumstances, some of which may not necessarily lead us to rejoice. We may be anxious about the material arrangements for the coming feast and about, or about how we will manage in the presence of family who are somewhat estranged; we may be suffering a serious or even mortal illness that seemingly renders the feast of Christmas somewhat irrelevant; the troubles of the past year may overwhelm us and the prospect of beginning a new one without their resolution may not be at all appealing; our personal growth in virtue may have taken steps backward, leaving us depressed and thinking that there is no hope; the social, political and economic situation of our country may tempt us to despair; the Church herself may seem to be in such disarray that we feel like simply giving up and retreating into some supposedly safe sect.

Yet, in all of these situations, and in any others in which we may find ourselves, through her Sacred Liturgy our Holy Mother the Church insists this morning that we rejoice. Given the real burdens we face, that may sound trite. Rejoicing may be the very last thing that we feel is appropriate or of which we believe ourselves capable.

But the Church—and St Paul, from whose letter to the Philippians (4:4) the Sacred Liturgy borrows these words—is not attempting some puerile form of consolation. Our mother is not offering us cheap tranquilisers. No. She is instructing us to rejoice in the Lord. For no matter what burdens weigh us down, no matter what threatens us, no matter how insufficient we are, no matter how many or grave are our sins, we are called to rejoice in the Lord. For as the Introit goes on to sing: “The Lord is at hand.” Of course, this begs the fundamental question: Who is the Lord? Whose birth is it to which this beautiful season of Advent looks forward with increasing expectation? Who is Jesus of Nazareth, born in a stable in Bethlehem?

The answer to this question will either enable us truly to rejoice or plunge us into deep despair. Because if the historical Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ of God of whom we sing in the Creed, by turning our lives to Him and in striving to be faithful to Him we can find forgiveness for our sins and the grace to persevere no matter how much difficulty or suffering we encounter in this life. For, as St Paul teaches in his letter to the Romans, “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (8:8) And no matter how weak or frail we are—physically or morally—if we continue to turn anew to the Lord, we have His assurance: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (II Cor. 12:9)

Of course, if we are to rejoice in the Lord, we must first and foremost turn to the Lord anew. If needs be we must re-turn to the Lord—and in this season of Advent, as ever, the making of an integral confession of our sins in the Sacrament of Penance is the most effective way of doing this. For no matter how weak we are, no matter how far we have fallen, no matter what threatens us, the Lord, our Saviour, waits for us in order to forgive us and to heal us. He waits for the opportunity that our turning to Him provides in order to give us His grace, which is truly sufficient for us in each and every trial we may face in this life.

Hence the Church can truly sing Gaudete in Domino semper. Hence she instructs us to “let all men know [our] forbearance.” Hence she insists that we “have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving [we] let [our] requests be made known to God. And hence she consoles us with the reality that if we do turn to the Lord who is at hand, we shall come to know and live from “the peace of God which passes all understanding”—that peace that shall “keep [our] hearts and [our] minds in Christ Jesus,” no matter what burdens or threatens us.

This is the ‘message’ of Advent: the Lord is near; our salvation is at hand—not in the sense that in eleven days’ time we shall be singing and feasting just as we have in years past, but in the sense that if we truly turn to the Lord anew, or (re-turn to Him) in these days of Advent we shall have every reason to feast—and that feast will last into eternity.

As we turn to the Lord at His altar this morning and enjoy a foretaste of that heavenly feast, let us pray earnestly that in this holy season and the upcoming feast we and our family and friends shall receive the graces necessary humbly to turn to the Lord, that we may all rejoice in the Lord always, now and forever. Amen. +