Tomorrow Is Gaudate Sunday

From Apostleship of Prayer

On Gaudate Sunday, the Church calls us to “Rejoice!” because Christmas is fast approaching. As we rejoice in the dignity of the human person which God revealed to us by becoming a human being, and as we pray that all people may find the answer to their questions in the Lord Jesus, we reflect on words from Fr. Benedict Groeschel’s book of Meditations “Behold, He Comes.”

Anyone can be happy, given the right set of circumstances; only the believer can rejoice. To rejoice is to have a joy that the world cannot take away. Such joy cannot be derived from a moment of sin or shallow success; it is much deeper, and cannot be taken away by time or chance or mishap or by the certainty of death. There are other kinds of joy, of course.

Respectable joy, such as what you see in old photographs of a party, or a prize won at sports, or at a wedding reception. The joy of a new job, a new home, a new baby. Thank God for such joys. But they fade.There is one joy that never fades. It is the joy of Christian hope. Sorrow cannot erode it, and time cannot carry it away. It is the joy of eternal life.

While we may find ways to preserve some of the simple joys of life, true eternal joy outshines them all. For it is only in the humble birth of the Son of God that passing joys have some hope of not disappearing like shadows. The Son of God was also a child of earth. His mother cuddled Him. The awe of the shepherds did not entirely displace ordinary feelings of delight at the sweet but mysterious baby. The people of His village were later surprised by His words and wisdom.

He became one of us. Rejoice because the passing joys of human life do not have to disappear forever. This Child will show us how to see them all in the mystery of endless day. Most precious of all joys are those that come from love. More than all else we do not want to be separated forever from those we love. He came that we may be forever with Him—and with them. Rejoice!