We started our Advent journey two weeks ago as a season of preparation, hope, and renewal. I am wearing a rose colored stole today and we light a rose colored candle on our Advent wreath, signifying Guadete Sunday on this third Sunday of Advent. The word “Guadete” comes from the Latin word “rejoice” from today’s Entrance Antiphon: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near.” But what does it mean to rejoice? Do we rejoice because of the tangible blessings and prosperity that we have now in our lives on earth? Or do we rejoice due to a spiritual joy that comes from our faith?
Last Thursday, on December 14, we celebrated the feast day of St John of the Cross. John’s life of faith is a testimony of what it means to rejoice as a disciple of Christ. John of the Cross was many things: a priest, a mystic, a reformer of the Carmelite order, a protégé of the great Saint Teresa of Avila, and one of the most celebrated poets and writers in the history of the Spanish language. He is one of only 36 men and women named as Doctors of the Church for their significant contributions to theology and spirituality. You would think that all this would mean that John had a lot of success and worldly pleasures in his lifetime. However, that is not the case. After his father’s death, John grew up as a child and youth in extreme poverty, experiencing homeless and hungry. He was a young priest in the Carmelite order in the midst of the Protestant Reformation and Spanish Inquisition, a tumultuous time in the history. Teresa of Avila, a Carmelite nun, asked John to help her reform their religious order. They both desired a return to their order's humble roots of prayer and simplicity. Feeling threatened by the reforms that he and Teresa advocated, his fellow Carmelite monks kidnapped him and threw him into a prison dungeon, where they beat him repeatedly each week. He was imprisoned for nine months until he escaped. Yet, in his imprisonment, his isolation and his sufferings, the light of his faith burned brightly. Out of his struggle and pain, he wrote beautiful poetry that spoke about the dark night of the soul. In the midst of his pain and sufferings, he wrote: “Where there is no love, put love -- and you will find love.” He devoted the rest of his life expressing and sharing the love he felt in his relationship with God. John unfortunately died from exposure from being imprisoned on another occasion in a cold cell in the middle of winter. He was only 49 years old. John of the Cross could have been bitter and cynical from his struggles and persecutions. Instead, he rejoiced in his relationship with God. He became a compassionate mystic whose writings and thoughts still touch our hearts more than 400 years after his death. That is what Advent is about: we prepare a place for Jesus in our hearts with joy no matter what we are going through in life. John of the Cross is one of the Advent prophet who speaks to us today.
Mary is another prophet who speaks to us on this 3rd Sunday of Advent. Mary is not only the Mother of Jesus, but she is the first disciple and the first great missionary for our faith, a young woman who trusted in God and opened her life to his will. Mary stood by her son his entire life, remaining a loyal believer even while he died on the cross. Today, Mary stands vigil with her son on our Advent journey as we honored her on December 12 on the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Mary has an important part in our Advent story, an important part in the story of salvation. But Mary does not exalt herself – she remains the handmaid of the Lord. But as the handmaid of the Lord she finds great joy, great love, great compassion.
Paul told the Thessalonians to rejoice always and to give thanks in all circumstances – but he clarifies this by saying to also pray without ceasing. Paul’s rejoicing, then, was always in the Lord and always grounded in his faith. According to St John Chrysostom, who was made Archbishop of Constantinople in the late 4th century and who was an influential Early Church Father, “he who rejoices in the Lord cannot be deprived of the pleasure of anything that may happen. All things other than the Lord in which we rejoice are mutable, changeable, and subject to variation.” According to St John Chrsyostom, “the person who respects and loves God as he should, who places his trust in him, gathers from the very source of pleasure and has possession of the whole fountain of joy in his life.”
John the Baptist was the voice crying in the wilderness. That voice prepared a way for the Lord. John the Baptist. The prophet Isaiah. The Blessed Virgin Mary. St John of the Cross. These prophets and messengers convey to us the Good News that is to come. In our busy lives, in the way we are pulled in so many different directions, we are called to make a path for the Lord in our lives. Let us do so with great joy.
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