Homily
Gaudete Sunday
11 December 2011
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
Daily Readings
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say rejoice! The Lord is near!
Welcome to Pink Sunday. Gaudete Sunday. Rejoice Sunday. We light the pink candle. We turn the corner toward Christmas. We rejoice for one reason, and one reason only. The Lord is near.
The joy proposed to us Christians on this 3rd Sunday of Advent is a distinctive joy. It is available here, and nowhere else. It is not the joy of improved external circumstances. It is not the joy of having things outwardly go better for us. It is not the joy of beating Ohio State or hiring Charlie Weis. No, as great as things like that are, and as thankful as we might be for such blessings, we rejoice today for a different reason, and for one reason only. The Lord is near.
Today's joy is born of knowing that since for our Lord, a thousand years are like a day, that we have no right to expect a gift like Jesus Christ to come into the world, and yet we rejoice because we know for certain that he is coming. We rejoice that he is coming not later, but now. We rejoice that he has come, that he is coming, and that he will come again. Those of us who sit in darkness have no right to anything but to sit in darkness, yet we rejoice that those of us who sit in darkness have seen a great light. We have no right to take Christmas for granted, but have every responsibility to imagine a world without Christmas. We have a duty to wonder if the Lord has not come to visit us if we would have long ago given up on visiting each other with His redeeming love. For this reason, taking nothing for granted, we rejoice. And we rejoice for one reason only, the Lord is near.
The coming of the Lord into the world brings something that nothing else can bring. He alone through whom all things were made, has the power to remake everything. This does not mean, as we have come to realize, that everything is about to go my way, or that things will turn out the way I think they should. No, it means something else - that an outwardly imperfect world is being made perfect from the inside out. Starting with the smallest and going to the greatest, the world is being made perfect from the inside out, and so are we. This is the joy, the distinctive joy, the incomparable joy, that we are invited to contemplate and enter into.
It is a joy that perdures whether or not I am outwardly ready for Christmas, whether or not finals week goes the way I think it should. It is a joy of knowing that there is one active inside of me that does more than I can ever do, one more interior to me than I am to myself who loves where I could never love myself, one closer to me than I am to myself who takes away any excuse I have not to be close to others. I rejoice, because the Lord is near, and he is ready to visit me, and to change my life from the inside out. I rejoice, then, because His coming brings nothing but joy, love and peace to my life, and that by his coming I am about to change more than I have ever changed before. I rejoice in this new hope, as surely as I can know that holding a newborn child can melt my heart.
John the Baptist as the greatest prophet tells us with great alarm that there is every chance that we will miss the Lord's visit again this year. Because the Lord wishes to visit us beginning as a vulnerable child, we have every reason to expect that he will visit me at my weakest and most vulnerable point, at my smallest point. It will take a pure faith, a faith unadulterated by the pride of sin and a faith uncluttered by the desire for things outwardly to go my way, in order for me to recognize the time of my own visitation. St. Johnthe Baptist tells us that there is no option but true repentance from the depths of our heart. For if we do not say with our Lady in her Magnificat that 'he has looked upon the lowliness of his handmaiden' then we are sure to miss Christmas again this year.
As St. Paul urges as well, let us look east and make ourselves as ready as we can be. Still, we rejoice not that that we are ready, not that we can ever be ready, but because He is ready. We rejoice for this reason, and this reason only. He is ready. And the Lord is near.
Gaudete Sunday
11 December 2011
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
Daily Readings
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say rejoice! The Lord is near!
Welcome to Pink Sunday. Gaudete Sunday. Rejoice Sunday. We light the pink candle. We turn the corner toward Christmas. We rejoice for one reason, and one reason only. The Lord is near.
The joy proposed to us Christians on this 3rd Sunday of Advent is a distinctive joy. It is available here, and nowhere else. It is not the joy of improved external circumstances. It is not the joy of having things outwardly go better for us. It is not the joy of beating Ohio State or hiring Charlie Weis. No, as great as things like that are, and as thankful as we might be for such blessings, we rejoice today for a different reason, and for one reason only. The Lord is near.
Today's joy is born of knowing that since for our Lord, a thousand years are like a day, that we have no right to expect a gift like Jesus Christ to come into the world, and yet we rejoice because we know for certain that he is coming. We rejoice that he is coming not later, but now. We rejoice that he has come, that he is coming, and that he will come again. Those of us who sit in darkness have no right to anything but to sit in darkness, yet we rejoice that those of us who sit in darkness have seen a great light. We have no right to take Christmas for granted, but have every responsibility to imagine a world without Christmas. We have a duty to wonder if the Lord has not come to visit us if we would have long ago given up on visiting each other with His redeeming love. For this reason, taking nothing for granted, we rejoice. And we rejoice for one reason only, the Lord is near.
The coming of the Lord into the world brings something that nothing else can bring. He alone through whom all things were made, has the power to remake everything. This does not mean, as we have come to realize, that everything is about to go my way, or that things will turn out the way I think they should. No, it means something else - that an outwardly imperfect world is being made perfect from the inside out. Starting with the smallest and going to the greatest, the world is being made perfect from the inside out, and so are we. This is the joy, the distinctive joy, the incomparable joy, that we are invited to contemplate and enter into.
It is a joy that perdures whether or not I am outwardly ready for Christmas, whether or not finals week goes the way I think it should. It is a joy of knowing that there is one active inside of me that does more than I can ever do, one more interior to me than I am to myself who loves where I could never love myself, one closer to me than I am to myself who takes away any excuse I have not to be close to others. I rejoice, because the Lord is near, and he is ready to visit me, and to change my life from the inside out. I rejoice, then, because His coming brings nothing but joy, love and peace to my life, and that by his coming I am about to change more than I have ever changed before. I rejoice in this new hope, as surely as I can know that holding a newborn child can melt my heart.
John the Baptist as the greatest prophet tells us with great alarm that there is every chance that we will miss the Lord's visit again this year. Because the Lord wishes to visit us beginning as a vulnerable child, we have every reason to expect that he will visit me at my weakest and most vulnerable point, at my smallest point. It will take a pure faith, a faith unadulterated by the pride of sin and a faith uncluttered by the desire for things outwardly to go my way, in order for me to recognize the time of my own visitation. St. Johnthe Baptist tells us that there is no option but true repentance from the depths of our heart. For if we do not say with our Lady in her Magnificat that 'he has looked upon the lowliness of his handmaiden' then we are sure to miss Christmas again this year.
As St. Paul urges as well, let us look east and make ourselves as ready as we can be. Still, we rejoice not that that we are ready, not that we can ever be ready, but because He is ready. We rejoice for this reason, and this reason only. He is ready. And the Lord is near.
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