Third Week of Advent: Rejoice in the Lord

In our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the readings for the Mass of the third Sunday of Advent also known as “Gaudete Sunday” or “Rejoice Sunday.”

The very first description of Jesus in the Gospel is that he is “good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10). Great joy always surrounds him and there is always a joyous reaction in the presence of Our Lord. Therefore, one tell-tale sign that we are in the right disposition for him to come to us is the prominent fruit of the Holy Spirit: joy.

Fr. Peter explains that permanent, deep joy exclusively comes from Christ and is the fruit of a close relationship with him. Joy outside of Christ is just a good mood, a thrill, or a momentary pleasure. Our true joy comes from being that good soil where we habitually seek Our Lord with our whole heart.

And, if we are lacking joy, this is the time to examine ourselves: Am I looking for Jesus with all my heart? Is he number one in my life? Do I want him to be number one?

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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and the grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

On this third Sunday of Advent, as always, we address Jesus in this Bethlehem of a chapel or, if you’re praying outside of this chapel, in a church which is essentially Bethlehem, which means, “house of bread,” this is the House of Bread of God. And the theme, traditionally of the third Sunday of Advent, called Gaudete Sunday, which means, literally, “rejoice Sunday” or “joy Sunday,” we reflect on one of the major manifestations of this intimate union with Jesus.

And Advent is about expecting Our Lord and welcoming Our Lord and creating the right staging area for Our Lord to come to us, the right dispositions. And one of the tell-tale signs of this more intense presence of Jesus is the prominent fruit of the Holy Spirit very much present throughout Jesus’ life and revealed by Paul as a fruit of the Holy Spirit, taught by the Catechism; it is joy. Joy and peace are those two prominent fruits of the Holy Spirit.

And in today’s gospel, as last week, John is the prominent character. He is the one who is preparing for the first Advent, the first coming of Our Lord in the public forum. And I won’t read the whole gospel, but it basically talks about mending our sinful ways, repenting and converting, because there’s going to be a far superior baptism that goes way beyond, transcends the baptism of water of John the Baptist, which is a symbol of forgiveness, a prefigure of forgiveness, because the Messiah will baptize us with God himself, the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Holy Spirit.

Fire and the Holy Spirit are both images of the Holy Spirit, is the name of the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity. And fire is the traditional symbol of love, of self-giving love. And the Holy Spirit is that Person that transforms us in such a way that we can love with that heart of Christ. He’s the bond of love between God the Father and God the Son. And hence, John says, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Exhorting them in many other ways, he preached good news to the people,” good news, because the Messiah is coming.

How do we bring this to our daily life, our practical life? Well, Advent is all about allowing this baptismal force, this baptismal state, which theologically means that we have been reborn in Christ, we’ve undergone another birth. The life of Christ was born in us when we were baptized with the Holy Spirit through the agency of that material sign called water.

What happened? I would compare it to a, if it’s good enough for Jesus, it’s certainly good enough for me, that Jesus liked to speak about his Kingdom using the analogy of the seed. What is his Kingdom but his union with the human heart with the human soul? And what do we see? Well, a seed has life, it’s a very rudimentary form of life, you could almost make the case it’s life in suspension.

There is a difference between a pebble and a string bean, even though they may look similar, because that string bean has, if you will, potential mature vegetable that gives off the fruit of more string beans. If you prefer the tomato seed, use that, eggplant, watermelon, whatever fruit or vegetable of your preference.

And what we see here is, that seed by itself will not grow. A seed is not meant for a display case. Is it dead? No. Would you say it’s alive? It’s potentially alive in a certain way. And its development is a certain kind of development corresponding to the nature of the seed.

The seed planting in us, I would say, is the grain of wheat, because the grain of wheat is the only grain that can hold the true presence of Jesus. The Mass is said, and the bread is consecrated in Mass. The substance of bread changes, and it becomes the true presence of Jesus underneath the appearance of bread and wine. Let’s continue our conversation with Our Lord so that we can understand this theme of the third Sunday of Advent, which is all about joy.

But I’d be cutting corners. In a certain sense I’d be “microwaving” this reflection on these readings of the third Sunday of Advent if I just said to myself and to you who are praying with me, “Hop to it. Be happy, get a smile on your face. We’re approaching Christmas.” That would be unfair, because this joy of Our Lord is not about graciousness. It’s not about technique.

But it is about a development in this union with Christ that began at baptism because what we will contemplate in more direct of a fashion on Christmas Day, Christmas Eve, the very first description of Jesus, that he is good news of great joy. That’s what he is, very first description.

He gives hope. And he gives joy. And not just standard joy, “I bring you good news of great joy,” excellent joy. And great joy is always surrounding him. It’s the case with the shepherds. It’s the case when the Apostles see the resurrected Jesus. It’s the case when Jesus ascends to Heaven. There’s always a joyous reaction in the presence of Our Lord.

Let’s go back to that grain of wheat. Yes, it can hold Christ. But a number of things have to happen; like every seed, it needs to be bathed in sunlight, bathed in water, and bathed in heat. Three images of the Holy Spirit, absolutely necessary. But we’re missing one component of this seed, and that is the soil.

“The Sower went out to sow his seed and only the good soil gave forth a fruitful [vegetable or plant or tree],” and so my dispositions, hence the role of John the Baptist: “His Kingdom is not of this world.” So, he is preaching, exhorting his followers, his people, to create the right receptivity for union with this Messiah who is God and Man.

And he prophesies that this baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire is going to be a medium through which we are intimately united to Jesus Christ. Baptism, in a very real sense, is a personal Christmas, where my heart and soul become the manger in a metaphorical sense. I become Bethlehem.

But my role here as baptized Christian is to respond to my baptismal vocation, which is to allow that life of Jesus to grow and grow and grow, so that we can say, with the saints, and more specifically with St. Paul, “It is no longer I that live, but Christ who lives in me.”

St. Josemaria taught, with different words on different occasions, that joy was in function of this presence of Christ in the heart, this union with Jesus. Joy is a loaded word. Psychologically, I encounter this in my priestly ministry, that Advent and Christmas time can be a blue time, while the days are shorter, darker, cold, bad weather.

And it’s a stark reminder of loss of loved ones, of serious illnesses, of insurmountable problems. And with all the Santa Clauses and the tinsel and the garlands and the cute displays in store windows, that I’m supposed to be happy, and the eggnog and the holly, the lights, et cetera. We’re all for it. But it’s very secondary.

I mean, all those decorations that are joyful in themselves, even the colors, green, white, red, has nothing to do with Italian ethnicity, but more about the birth of Our Lord. It brings about a certain reminder that we should be joyful, and that could backfire because we may have compelling reasons not to be joyful. But St. Josemaria, basically, the second reading from St. Paul, tells us that we rejoice in the Lord, this joy exclusively comes from Christ.

He’s not an option, because joy outside of Christ is a good mood. It’s a thrill. It’s a momentary pleasure. It’s the satisfaction of success that is so fleeting. Permanent joy, deep joy, is symptomatic of a close relationship with Jesus, it’s being that good soil where we habitually seek Our Lord with our whole heart.

I’m quoting Jeremiah 29:13. This quotation keeps reappearing in my Divine Office, especially Advent and Lent. And depends on the translation, but Jeremiah says, “You will seek him, and you will find him if you seek him with all your heart.” And that’s the disposition we want to cultivate, that I want to seek Jesus with all my heart and then I will do it in installments with resolutions.

I approached two elderly men of Opus Dei who both knew St. Josemaria. One is temperamentally kind of serious. The other one is temperamentally jovial. And you know, the typical question, my friend, what do I tell my friend when you really want to know the answer for yourself personally. So, I approached the serious person, realizing that people who knew this saint are an endangered species, since he died in 1975.

So, I asked him because you read his writings, and they’re beautiful, they’re profound. There’s humor, but there’s an element of no non-sense as well. And I would say it’s also cultural as well, he was a man of his own culture. So, I asked this elderly person, “What was he like? So I could tell other people, I want to know for myself, what was your impression?” “Oh, very special person.” And he said immediately after that, “He was fun to be with.” Of all the things he could have said, said “He’s fun to be with.”

And so, I said, “Wow, I didn’t expect that from him. I expected something a little bit more mystical, something a little bit more spiritual.” And that’d get you to laugh, he was always smiling. He was lighthearted. So, I asked the jovial elderly person as well, who’s American, I asked him and his immediate reaction was, “No, can you leave me alone?”

I said, well, you know, young people like to know. “Oh, he was a blast.” That’s it. And I said, “Well, sometimes he would correct. It seems like he would correct.” “Oh, it’s kind of like your mom or your dad correcting, coming from him it didn’t matter at all.”

And he said, “We had so much fun.” He’s well over 90 years of age. And I started to reflect that this comes right out of the gospel. Because it’s Jesus himself who says if we keep his commandments, that these are not the Ten Commandments, they’re the fulfillment of the Ten Commandments, but they’re not precisely the Ten Commandments when Jesus says, “He who keeps my commandments.” He associates keeping those commandments with joy. And he says that if we keep his commandments, his joy will be in us.

Let me quote this. “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.” His commandments is himself. Everything he said is basically the persona of Jesus Christ. His teaching, his actions are his commandments.

And he talks about his joy being communicated to us in one instance in the gospel: it’s almost a handbook on how to be joyful: “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment: that you love one another, as I have loved you.”

Very loaded, that one phrase subsumes all his instruction, that I reflect, duplicate his loving heart. It’s all about keeping his commandments. How do I exactly keep those commandments? I meditate on his life. I nourish myself with both, in the words of St. Josemaria, the Bread and the Word.

I meditate on his life, I speak to him, I listen to him. I talk to him about his words, and I incarnate those words. I seek him basically with my whole heart. I provide the Holy Spirit with that good soil and, commensurate with my particular temperament, the joy of Jesus emerges, shines out, and it’s in function of my interior life.

St. Josemaria says, in Forge, “You want to be happy? Have interior life. You want to be more happy? Have more interior life. You want to be very happy? Have much interior life.” A profound spiritual theology in that point. This whole theme reminds me of a recent conversation with an elderly man, well over 80 years of age, and very joyful, a lot of jokes, super warm, great listener, you know, he’s the whole package. Very serious Christian, very serious Catholic Christian, centered on the Eucharist, man of prayer, good professional.

Without much melodrama, in a small circle of close friends, gave a little bit of his background. You know, we asked him, “Where’d you go to school?” and “Where do you live?” and those kinds of questions. And in the course of the conversation, the poor man lost two of his adult children and his wife. And I didn’t comment right then and there, but I was completely taken aback because he gave beautiful, marvelous expression to the gospel.

He proved, he was a witness, that my joy is not dependent on circumstances, on successes, on what the world would say, good luck or fortune. Not that we take lightly these kinds of tragedies and heavy crosses, God will give us the grace. But I was taken aback by the humor, by the happiness, by the optimism. And then in general, fun to be with, easy to talk to. Also, he’s gifted with charm and personality, but on a human level, with that kind of track record, you would think he hit the jackpot. Well, he did, because of his union with Our Lord.

Let’s keep meditating, borrowing, you know, the normal psychological reaction of this Christmas, not having someone we love with us, as was the case last Christmas, a very legitimate human reaction. But if I find myself lacking in joy, and we’re not in Heaven, but lacking in joy, we should not fret. We should not despair, that’s for sure. But we should examine ourselves and ask that question that makes us all squirm: Am I looking for Jesus with all my heart? Is he number one in my life? Do I want him to be number one in my life? That’s a start. Do I desire that he be number one in my life? Because that’s the only way to connect with him.

When the parable of the Sower states that the good soil is that “good and right heart” or “good and honest heart,” depending on the translation. The, I don’t know Greek, but the original Latin or at least the Latin Vulgate, or Neo-Vulgate says, optimo corde, and that’s translated into the “good and right heart.” That Latin phrase means literally, “the best heart.”

So, the Holy Spirit, through the words of Jesus, tell us that we have to give the best heart to him so that we can let that seed of baptism grow, because being a new evangelizer, I’m talking about the New Evangelization, our Holy Father says, “We have to lead with joy.” Joy is what, who Christ is, Christ is life. He is good news of great joy. He is light and life.

And I need to be an extension of that very heart of Christ. Not an imitation! That too, but he doesn’t say, “be an imitation,” he says, “my joy in you,” “love as I have loved.” Doesn’t say, “Imitate my love.” I mean, that’s in there: “Love as I have loved.” And so, I need to live his life more intimately, and the foundation, the basis, the bedrock, is my prayer life. And then my struggle to convey the joy of Our Lord.

One last brief anecdote: I was going for a medical checkup. And it was early in the morning, typical gray, cold, Chicago morning. And we had to register because this particular time I had to get an X-ray, a chest X-ray. And there were a number of people, there was probably thirty people in the waiting area. Most were significantly ill. And there weren’t a lot of smiling faces. And under those circumstances, you got to be cheerful in a prudent way, because people are not in the mood for a lot of laughs, especially at eight o’clock in the morning.

And the person you had to register with was in a moderate good mood. I mean, he had enough sensitivity not to overdo it. And he had a smile on his face, was kind of very accommodating, very patient, and had an affectionate smile on his face. So, anyway, registered, got my X-ray, checked out with the person I registered, gave my ticket number back, and I thanked him. I said, “You know, I really appreciate your good mood, your joy, your smile. You’ve lifted up our spirits. And I really appreciate that, really nice service.”

And he had a knee jerk reaction that, don’t give him the gratitude give it to Our Lord. And I said, “Okay, but you are the one who’s being cheerful.” He said, “Well, I make sure- I’m praying a lot every morning.” He was not Catholic; he was a very good Christian. He says, “I open up my Scriptures and I spend the evening,” he said, “I spend an hour in prayer in the morning.” He even said, “Listen, you know, if this has made an impression on you, Father, you may want to use me as an example.” I said, “I will!” I said, “I need examples like this.”

As we start winding down this meditation, first, I have to be willing to seek him with my whole heart, and then a very necessary resolution is that I carve out the time each day. And let’s not fall back on that excuse, “I’m crazy busy.” I mean, the whole culture is crazy busy, or “I have too much on my plate.” He comes first. Let’s move things off our plate, be less “crazy busy” so that my prayer is a habitual activity, a primary activity, that my day revolves around Our Lord. I begin with baby steps, but I do begin.

And I commit myself to prayer using the gospel, maybe the gospel of the day’s Mass. Any way we want, the writings of St. Paul, writings in the New Testament, or Old Testament as well, the Psalms, whatever it is, that I am exclusively focused on Christ every day and ideally, in the morning, as a first activity of the day, which has cosmic significance because it’s symbolic of the Resurrection, the sun comes out. And there’s a certain silence in the morning. And if we are in ideal circumstances we do it before the Blessed Sacrament.

We may not have that opportunity because of work demands and family obligations, but, if we could, that’s the ideal. And we connect it with Mass, before Mass. And that prayer, that meditation, prepares us to receive the Bread of God, and to be more intimately united to the Sacrifice of the Mass that includes us as well. We are transformed. Christ grows in us.

And amid our flaws and defects and sins, we witness Christ because we’re rejoicing, as our Holy Father teaches, that compelling witness of Christ is, in a certain sense, reduced to that happiness, that joy of Our Lord that does not depend on fortune but does depend on our union with him.

We pray to the Blessed Mother who is called the Cause of our Joy, who reveals her joy in her Magnificat. We ask her to help us use the right means of the interior life, of prayer and the Eucharist, so that we can rejoice in Christ and be more effectively transmitting the life of Christ to our family and to our friends. 

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations you’ve communicated to me in this meditation. I ask your help in putting them into effect. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.