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 the desert bloom.
If you have ever seen this miracle of nature, you know how breathtaking it is.
This barren, desolate and vast expanse gives way to an overabundance of
delicate beauty. 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, “they will meet with joy and gladness, [their] sorrow and sighing will flee”.
Today’s
readings prompt us to be people of expectant hope and 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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