December 15, 2024

3rd Sunday of Advent (C)

“Rejoice Always”… Is it Possible?

Msgr Thomas Gervasio

In her liturgical vesture today, the Church sets aside the violet of expectation and penance in favor of the brighter color rose, as she sees Christmas on the horizon. Midway there, the liturgy seeks to convey a sense of joyful anticipation. Today is often called “Gaudete” or “Rejoice” Sunday, a title taken from today’s entrance antiphon and epistle where St. Paul urges us to “Rejoice always in the Lord”—Gaudete in Domino!
 
How is it possible to rejoice always? With so many problems and anxieties we contend with, isn’t St. Paul just a bit naïve? Not if we make an important distinction. St. Paul doesn’t say, “Be happy always.” He says, “rejoice in the Lord always.” Happiness is not the same as joy. We view them as synonyms and use them interchangeably but from a biblical and spiritual perspective they are different.
 
Joy is permanent, while happiness is fleeting. Joy is from God, while happiness is based on a given set of circumstances. Happiness fades over time, but Christian joy endures. Pope Francis said, “The joy of the Christian is not the gladness of the moment,” and he asks, “What is this joy? Is it having fun? No, it is not the same thing. Having fun is good, enjoying ourselves is good. But joy is something more, something else. It…does not come from temporary conditions…It cannot be tied to the present moment. St. Paul VI said “Society has succeeded in multiplying opportunities for pleasure, but it has great difficulty in generating joy, for joy comes from another source. It has its source in God.
 
So, the joy of a Christian has less to do with emotion more to do with belief. It is the firm belief that God holds us together through the events of life. It is the conviction that God loves us unconditionally and that nothing can take that love away from us. This realization generates true joy.
 
It is amazing to find in the lives of the saints the capacity to be joyful even in the most desperate situations. When St. Paul wrote, “Rejoice always in the Lord,” he was not at a beach on the Mediterranean, but in prison—hardly a place of happiness. As strange as it seems, he could still rejoice.
 
This was because he and so many other saints possessed a lively and literal sense of God’s reality, his power and goodness. They knew his promises were reliable. They knew they were not alone, and that at every moment they were in the hands of a loving God. At the Last Supper, on the eve of his suffering and death, Our Lord told the apostles: “I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete.” He didn’t say that my happiness might be in you. Good Friday loomed. Even so, Jesus spoke of joy, certain that he was in his Father’s hands.
 
What about us? It is fine to take pleasure in happy events, but we should pursue the joy that endures. Perhaps this prayer could be ours:
 

Heavenly Father, Saint Paul urges me to rejoice always and that is not always easy. The problems and burdens of life weigh me down. Grant me a lively and literal sense of your reality, your power, and your goodness. I give you thanks for the moments of happiness you send me but help me cultivate the joy you desire for my life that comes from the realization that in every circumstance, every little part of us, yes, every hair, is completely safe in your divine embrace.