Rejoice in the Lord Always! 3rd Sunday of Advent, Year C
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| Thanks to Jack Flaxbeard for sharing this with me! |
What should we do?
What should we do, as parishioners here at St. Anthony’s in Columbus, NE? This is the question we hear in the Gospel
today, on this third Sunday of Advent, when Father and I wear rose vestments. This is Gaudete Sunday, Gaudete meaning
“Rejoice!” We hear this in the second
reading from St. Paul – “Rejoice in the Lord always! Again, I say, Rejoice!” So that’s what we should do: rejoice! But what does it mean to rejoice in the
Lord? What does this really look like
day-to-day?
I was assisting with a youth conference in Kansas City a few
years ago, and the overall theme of the conference was this very verse:
“Rejoice in the Lord always!” One
memorable part of this conference was our Saturday afternoon activity:
door-to-door evangelization. The
organizers split the 500 youth and adults into many small groups, giving each
of them a route of houses in a neighborhood to knock on the door, greet
whomever might answer, and provide information about a nearby parish. Pretty ambitious, that’s for sure! I was a bus captain for this activity, being
in charge of directing the bus driver to where the students needed to be
dropped off. My map-reading skills were
really tested that day! So I didn’t go
out with the youth, but I noticed something pretty remarkable. When we were driving to our neighborhood, the
atmosphere on the bus was fairly tense.
The kids were either silent or just lightly talking, and you could tell
that a lot of them were pretty anxious.
However, when we picked up the students from their routes, they were so
much more exuberant, laughing and sharing some stories of the encounters they
had. It was such a joyful ride home and
a joyful evening back at the conference.
It seemed that nearly everyone had a positive experience of sharing the
Gospel, and it was neat to hear specific stories of how this happened. The contrast between before and after was
stunning – quite the proof of the joy of the Gospel.
Many of us probably haven’t had the experience of going
door-to-door, but as Christians, maybe we’ve had some similar experiences that
led to this same joy. Yet even if we
have had such experiences, we know that it is really difficult to maintain this
joy. Often we go back to the day-to-day
grind, forgetting about our higher call to live in the Lord’s love. We are often hindered by fear and
anxiety. It is hard for us to rejoice
when we have these anxieties, and a command from Paul to “have no anxiety at
all” can make no sense to us. The key
question for us: what happens between when we enter into life with the Lord and
when we are able to rejoice in Him? Like
these students, how can we go from tension to rejoicing?
St. Paul gives us the answer: When we recognize the Lord’s
goodness and share it freely, we will then rejoice in the Lord, becoming a sign
of hope and peace for others. He states
within this passage, “The Lord is near.”
We hear this in the first reading – “The Lord is in our midst, singing
over us in joy!” John the Baptist says,
“One mightier than I is coming.” Whenever
we turn to prayer, we are invited to remember the Lord is with us, that He is
coming even more, even in the midst of anxiety.
That door-to-door evangelization was not an isolated event; in the
conference, it came after times of prayer and reflection that helped the
students realize that the Lord is with them.
Then, it was from this place that they could go out and share their
relationship with Christ. We see this in
the Gospel when John the Baptist tells everyone what they should do. In all cases, they should put away greed,
lying, and anger to receive a new dependence on the Lord and a new awareness of
His presence. This is the connection
between our daily lives and our relationship with God; everything is truly a
gift from Him. As I have grown in prayer
and appreciation of God’s goodness, I have found more often that I can be
joyful, even in the midst of anxiety, and the Lord promises the same for each
of us.
Taking these thoughts from St. Paul, consider this: what practical
ways can each of us learn to rejoice in the Lord always? First, take time for prayer as a regular part
of your life, taking time each day to remember that the Lord is with you
always. Our conscious presence with Him
will affect the rest of our activities. Second,
as John the Baptist says, repent of whatever is getting in the way of God; the
sacrament of confession is an awesome way to do this, which we’ll be offering a
lot here throughout this week. Finally,
do not be afraid to share Christ with others.
If you think that’s hard, think of a restaurant for you that you really
enjoy going to. If someone asks you for
somewhere good to eat, would you not quickly respond with this
recommendation? It’s easy for us to
recommend a restaurant to another person, and it’s in that same way that we can
recommend the Gospel, because it’s so much better than any food we can eat. I think we will have many opportunities to do
this in these next couple of weeks as Christmas comes – we’ll be with so many
family members, friends, and fellow parishioners, and maybe some of them
haven’t experienced this joy in meeting Jesus. We can share our own joy with them in a non-threatening
and inviting way, to join us here in this community. These simple ways of evangelization are
opportunities to spread joy and peace in the world.
Imagine what our Church will look like when more and more of
us to rejoice in the Lord in this way – how contagious will this joy be in the
world? I consider again the students
that I witnessed, who went from trepidation to rejoicing through their sharing
the Gospel. While I did not participate
in this activity since I was the bus captain, I did have a beautiful experience
of my own. Once all of the students were
dropped off, I began to talk with the bus driver, a middle-aged woman. While it seemed a little awkward at first, it
soon developed into a very natural conversation. As I shared about my life and experiences,
she began to share with me some of the recent sufferings in her life, including
a family member being tragically killed.
She also felt like she needed a supportive church community because her
previous Christian community had not been satisfying her spiritually. I encouraged her to the best of my ability;
however, when the students came back on the bus, I could tell that their joy
truly affected her. One of the students
even shared with her the packet of parish information that he had been giving
out, and she received it eagerly, making that day truly a day of joy!
So as we approach this Eucharist, where we receive Jesus
into our hearts, we pray, “Jesus, fill us with your joy! Cast out all anxiety and distress from our
hearts, and send us your Holy Spirit, that we may do all things in your love
and joy.”
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