Deacon Tom Writes,
“Rejoice in the Lord Always!”
Today is known as Gaudete Sunday. The word Gaudete
is the first word of the Entrance Antiphon for today’s Liturgy. "Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice! The
Lord is near". One of the symbols of this Joy is the lighting of the
rose candle on our Advent wreath.
In our first reading the Prophet Isaiah tells us
that a day will come when God's kingdom will break forth like a highway in the
wilderness or crocuses blooming in the parched desert. This isn’t some
delusional imagination at work. When their time comes even deserts produce
profound beauty. And so it will be in God’s time Isaiah insists. The day will
come when the blind will see, the deaf will hear, the lame will leap, and the
dumb will shout for joy. Water will gush in the desert, burning sand will
transform into a bubbling spring. For all those who are twisted, bent, and bowed
down by their burdens and harsh realities of life, Isaiah prophesies that one day
"gladness and joy will overtake
them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away".
Today’s
readings prompt us to be people of expectant hope, to be a people who claim
God’s promise as if we already possessed it, as if we were already living in
this ultimate reality! Today we all claim as our own the gladness and joy
Isaiah tells us will chase away our sorrows and sadness. Look closely at our
readings today. Look around today at the litany of people who, although cast
aside by the world, marginalized by poverty and ignorance, sadness and disease,
refugees from war and famine; these are the very one who have a special claim
on God’s love, mercy, and compassion. Look carefully at those Isaiah says have
a very special reason to rejoice today: those with feeble hands and weak knees,
those with frightened hearts, the blind, the deaf, the lame, the mute, the
oppressed, the hungry, the captives, the bowed down, the strangers, the
orphans, the widows, the poor, the lepers, and the dead. To be numbered among them….
is to be specially chosen by God!!!!! To be number among those who serve these little
ones is to be faithful to Christ’s call to serve these, the least of our sisters and brothers.
On
this day of Rejoicing, it is good to recall the times in our lives when we have
been the forgotten, the alienated or hungry one. Let us resolve this Advent to
be a source of strength, encouragement, and support to those who have yet to
claim God’s promise of gladness and joy.
Make
this a joy-filled day!
Deacon
Tom
Image credit: REJOICE!
By Sarah Brush, Discipleship Ministries
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