Reflection
Gaudete Sunday
12 December 2010
St. Lawrence Catholic Center
Rejoice in the Lord always!
Again, I say rejoice!
The Lord is near.
Not anxiety today.
But rejoicing.
Pink Sunday is about rejoicing.
But don't call is pink.
It's rose - get it right!
Priests don't wear pink.
But rejoicing nonetheless.
Not the anxiety of finals at KU.
Not the anxiety of shopping days remaining
or how much money is left
or who is going where and why.
Not the anxiety of how to make Christmas perfect
from the outside in.
But rejoicing, because the Lord is coming.
Rejoicing that He will do what essentially needs to be done.
Rejoicing, for He is coming
to make our Christmas perfect
from the inside out.
Again, I say rejoice!
John the Baptist in prison
perhaps had a second thought
for he had decreased
so that the Lord could increase
yet now the Lord was decreasing.
Why is Jesus messing up the plan?
John the Baptist was not worthy to untie his sandal
yet the Lord who could change everything
was only changing the smallest of things.
The Lord who could change everything,
was healing people who could change nothing.
Is this the one who is to come?
The one who can change everything
has no interest in politics
or macroeconomics.
Is this the one who is to come?
He makes himself smaller and smaller and smaller,
healing people from the inside out
changing little from the outside in
content to teach the dumb not the learned
to heal one by one.
At this rate he could live a thousand years and never finish
yet he makes himself smaller
and smaller and smaller.
Patience St. Paul tell us today!
Patient rejoicing, like a farmer waiting for the fruit!
This is the one who comes.
He is coming with his power that could make us obey
yet he would not break a bruised reed
and he shows the power that once made the universe
not in annihilating us
but in redeeming us
in serving us
in making Himself smaller and smaller
until I believe that He came for me
and me alone
that He came not to be served, but to serve me
not in showing himself bigger
but by making himself smaller and smaller
until he is irresistible
not by his bigness
but by his smallness.
He becomes smaller and smaller and smaller
until it is just me and Him
until I can hold Him in my arms like Mary and Joseph
until He disarms my defenses
and heals me from the inside out.
Rejoice,
for the Lord our God is coming!
He is coming to heal us by relationship,
by dependence
by intimacy
by vulnerability.
These things alone heal from the inside out.
They free a person more perfectly
than self-help
self-esteem
or any gift under the tree that promises what it cannot deliver.
He alone is perfect gift.
He alone is perfect fulfillment and peace.
He alone can satisfy.
His coming is the reason we travel,
his giving is the reason we give,
his closeness is the reason for our wanting to be close to each other,
for closeness is healing
being together in Him is what will heal our hearts
and give us the hope
to endure with patience and perseverance and love
whatever may come
until God has redeemed the world in His way
according to His promise
to begin with the least of us.
The least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
Behold the lowliness of his handmaiden.
Behold Mary, the first to be raised from
least to greatest.
Mary, take now the baton from John the Baptist
and take us to Bethlehem with you.
John told us to be ready with his words,
but you show us how to be ready with your silence.
Remind us how to have a heart like a child
a heart that is not anxious for Christmas
but rejoices that it is near,
give to us all your immaculate heart
the heart of a mother expecting her first child
in just days
not with anxiety or fear
but with joy
in letting yourself always be made new by His coming
pure joy in letting it be done unto you according to His word!
Rejoice in the Lord always!
Again, I say rejoice!
The Lord is near!
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