“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed the Lord is near.” This is the beginning of the Church’s prayer for this Third Sunday of Advent, also known as Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete is the Latin imperative, rejoice! And so today, my dear friends in Christ, we are commanded to rejoice in the Lord. But why does the Church echo St. Paul’s imperative to rejoice with such force this day? For it seems that even the liturgical vestments of this day can hardly resist from breaking into song. From the darkness of penitential purple there comes an inbreaking of the Star in the East, pulsating in our direction to warm our hearts and spirits with joy, a Divine telegraphing of the impending arrival of the King. 

Therefore, in one sense, the command to rejoice is evident: Christmas is around the corner and thus we rejoice. But for whom is this arrival a cause for rejoicing? What special cause for rejoicing do those have who have been in continual celebration mode since Thanksgiving? scurrying from one party to the next as though Advent were nothing more than some name the Church gives to the weeks leading up to Christmas? What significance can the rose liturgical color, which summons us to rejoice, have for those who have failed to take note of the significance of the purple that has been present for the past two weeks? Not much more than a change of scenery. Upon such ears the great call to rejoice confounds. Why this call to rejoice? For we’ve been rejoicing all along.

The call to rejoice this Sunday resounds most fully in the hearts of those who have been intentionally preparing for the arrival of the Savior. Indeed, for those who have headed the cry of the Baptist in the desert, summoning us to repentance as the prophets of old: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths” (Luke 3:4). And how is it that we have set about making the paths of the Lord straight? By removing everything from our lives that would impede His arrival, from subjecting ourselves to the healing scalpel of the Divine Physician, removing every cancerous growth of vice and sin in our lives through acts of penitence, the reception of the sacrament of the same name and efforts to grow in holy virtue. Indeed, for those who have made the time and put in the effort to prepare, today is a great day of rejoicing, as we wait in joyful hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ!

If the last line just read sounds familiar, it is because we hear them each and every time we gather at the Altar of the Lord. It is known as the Embolism which is recited immediately after the Lord’s Prayer by the priest. Then, too, we are in Advent mode as the Latin of the Embolism makes clear (see quote below), anticipating the arrival of the body, blood, soul and divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the reception of the Eucharist. And, then, too, we have prepared in the same way the Church calls us to prepare for His arrival at Christmas, through penitential acts. For we pray in the Lord’s Prayer to forgive our sins, and deliver us from evil, and then the priest, acting in persona Christi gathers up our petitions before the Heavenly Father and in the Embolism prays:

Deliver, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, that, by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior (adventum Salvatoris), Jesus Christ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2854).

There are two words worth flagging in the Embolism that encapsulate the joy we experience in a special way this day. The first is “blessed”. Previously, it was translated into English as “joyful.” Behind the different English translations is the Latin beatam, which comes from the root beatus, meaning happy. But happy here qualifies hope. This theological virtue produced within us by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, St. Thomas Aquinas tells us, is related to striving after something difficult, or arduous to attain (Summa Theologica II-II, Q. 17.1). In this case that something is the eternal happiness of the life of Heaven. But for those who hope by the grace of the Holy Spirit for that eternal happiness, Aquinas goes on, nothing else seems difficult (ST II-II, Q. 17.2, ad. 3). Thus, even amidst the penitential efforts of this most august Season of Advent, we have cause to rejoice, for we are already happy in the hope we have been given by the Holy Spirit’s indwelling, giving us a foretaste of the life of Heaven even in the midst of this valley of tears. Accordingly, as St. Anthony of Padua teaches us, we have a twofold cause for rejoicing this Gaudete Sunday. In reference to the passage from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians cited at the outset (Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice, Phil. 4:4), Anthony says:

Note that he says ‘rejoice’ twice, because of the two-fold blessing of the first and second Advents. We should rejoice because in his first coming he bestowed riches and glory on us. We should rejoice again, because in his second coming he will give us length of days (Sermon for the Third Sunday of Advent, 3).

This is the great force of the Advent Season, to remind us, that in some sense, all of life is a great Advent, a preparation for the coming of Our Savior, Jesus Christ at the end of time (either personally or cosmically). The question for us ultimately becomes, will that day give us cause to rejoice or not? The answer is supplied in our hearts. How intensely have we allowed the flame of the Holy Spirit’s virtue of hope to burn within us by giving ourselves over to incarnating the petition of Our Lord’s Prayer that His Kingdom come and His will be done on earth, i.e., within our own lives and communities, as it is in Heaven? If we haven’t, the coming of Our Savior will come with as much confusion as Gaudete Sunday comes for those who have been rejoicing since Thanksgiving. If we have, we will have cause to rejoice in abundance, for our hope, which has kept us in joyful expectation of His coming, will have been satisfied.

Let us pray that we be given the grace to see this Advent through to the end by stoking to fever pitch the Spirit’s virtue of hope within us, for those who have such hope are happy indeed.

Your servant in Christ,

Tony

The following short prayer service has been put together by the team at FRESHImage for your use as a group as you light the third candle on your Advent Wreath on the Third Sunday of Advent at home with family and friends.

Please be sure use the prayer service for the Fourth Sunday of Advent which we will release next Saturday, and make these prayers part of your family’s annual Advent traditions.

Downloadable versions of the following prayer service are available to registered FRESHImage members.