Rejoice Friends In Christ!
Gaudete or ‘Rejoice’ is the message of this Third Sunday of Advent. This comes from the opening antiphon of today’s Mass: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near” (Phil 4:4-5). We also hear about patience this weekend. Let’s look at joy and patience.
St. Thomas Aquinas writes that joy is a fruit of love (charity). He teaches that we get joy when we are in the presence of the one we love and when the one we love has what they need to flourish.
The presence of the one we love. This Sunday, we rejoice because God is with us! In this season of preparation, we are seeking to make space in our hearts and in our lives so that we can receive even more of Him. We do this through prayer and recollection, through reconciliation and penance. The Lord is always drawing nearer to our souls by the promptings and invitations of His grace. How am I responding? Lord, increase my faith and my desires to draw near to you in every opportunity for prayer, in every moment, in every circumstance.
This deeper gift of God into our lives is not only for us: joy comes when the one we love has what they need to thrive. So, in this season and beyond, we strive to love and serve our neighbor with the love of the heart of Christ. Our choices of love become ‘advents’ of Christ into the lives of others.
To have joy, we must love well; and to love well, we need patience, because it is not always easy or comfortable to choose to love. In today’s Gospel, we find John the Baptist in prison. He never saw a miracle of Jesus. But he still believed when his disciples came and told him all the marvelous things Christ was up to. He never gave up his faith or love.
If we feel a little like John the Baptist, struggling to find the presence of God; if we feel like God is concealing Himself in this season of our lives, let us renew our faith moment by moment. The words of the first reading are for us in difficult times, “to those who are frightened”: “Strengthen the hands that are feeble, make firm the knees that are weak… Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you.”
Tonight at 6:30pm at Our Lady of the Chesapeake, the choir will lead us in a beautiful Lessons and Carols service. This is a beautiful way to enter into the loving promises of God to us through Scripture and song. We hope to see many of you there!
Who is the Lord putting on your heart to invite to Christmas Mass this year? It isn’t an invitation to the dentist! It can’t hurt to invite them. And, be assured: there are really beautiful things happening in peoples’ hearts. A simple invitation could be all that they need. May they have a deep, profound experience of the love of God through the sacraments and in the presence of our spiritual family.
Thank you for keeping the Pastorate of the Visitation—St. Jane Frances de Chantal and Our Lady of the Chesapeake—in your daily prayers!
In Christ Jesus our Joy,
Father John
