We Are Made For Joy
HOMILY FOR THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT C – 15 DECEMBER 2024
Joy is something of interest to all of us. You could say that we are made for joy. Every human heart longs for joy. On this third Sunday of Advent, we could ask ourselves just how joyful we are. I read that there is a short equation for joy. To experience joy, we must: Add Meaning, Multiply Happiness, Subtract Regret! This is, in itself, a summary of the message of our readings this Sunday. So how do we lead lives filled with meaning, purpose and joy? It has been said that if you want to get to the joy of Bethlehem in the presence of Jesus, you must get past John the Baptist in the desert. John the Baptist challenges us to “repent our way” to experiencing Christmas joy.
Appropriate for this Gaudete Sunday, or Rejoice Sunday, the theme of joy runs through the readings and the whole liturgy. The intention is that, as we approach the great feast of Christmas, our joy or excitement steadily increases.
Advent is a time of preparation, a time to get in touch with our longing for more, a time to consider what it is we need most in our lives, what it is that brings true joy and happiness. Advent is a time for joy, not only because we are anticipating the anniversary of the birth of Jesus, but also because God is already in our midst. Remember the prophecy of Isaiah concerning the Christ-child is that he will be called Emmanuel, a name which means “God-is-with-us.”
Our joy at Christmas is essentially Christian joy. This Sunday we are asked to reflect on what is so special about Christian joy, and what are the components of this joy. We see that Christian joy does not come from the absence of sorrow, or pain, or trouble, but rather from an awareness of the presence of Christ with us.
In today’s first reading, the prophet Zephaniah says, “Shout for joy, O Zion! Sing joyfully, O Israel.” Zephaniah made this prophetic proclamation at the height of the Jewish exile when things appeared hopeless and unbearable. Significantly, the word, Rejoice, is given as an imperative, a command. It is something that we are told to do; it is not just a feeling. Zephaniah calls Israel to rejoice because God is in their midst and he will save them from their present tribulations. The remainder of the reading describes a time of salvation lying in the future. Zephaniah speaks in glowing terms of a restoration God will enact in the future. On that day, he says, the Lord will definitively be in their midst; the Lord will rejoice over them with gladness and renew them in his love. We Christians believe that the coming of Jesus fulfilled this promise. This fulfilled prophecy is the cause of our joy.
The instruction “to Rejoice” is repeated in the responsorial song (which this Sunday is not a psalm but rather a song from the book of Isaiah). Isaiah says, “Shout and sing for joy, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.” He calls on us to praise God for the plan of salvation that has been revealed. Again, we hear the promise of the Lord being in our midst.
St Paul echoes the same message of joy in the second reading, taken from his letter to the Philippians. He says, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say, Rejoice ... The Lord is near. Have no anxiety about anything …” Remember St Paul was in prison when he wrote to this letter and made this appeal for rejoicing. He says that the Lord is near and that the peace which surpasses all understanding will keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. If St Paul was able to write with such joy and command us to rejoice even from a position of great difficulty and suffering, clearly the joy we have as Christians is not dependent on the circumstances of our lives. The reason for our joy is because the Lord is near. The Lord is near in the sense that Jesus is with us now as we wait for his second coming, but also because we are preparing for a renewed and fresh experience of his presence with us and within us, this Christmas.
Of course, God is always near to us, but in Advent we undergo a liturgical-spiritual exercise of living through the expectation of his arrival. We are identifying with the Israelites living in Old Testament times, longing and waiting for the Messiah.
St Paul, in this short passage gives us some very practical advice on what it means to live in joy and to rejoice. Firstly, he tells us not be anxious about anything, but to trust the loving providence of the Lord who is with us. Secondly, we are to show kindness to everyone. Thirdly, we are to make a constant practice of prayer as an antidote to worry. He asks that our prayer include intercession, supplication, and especially thanksgiving. Isn’t it so true that gratitude is the secret essential ingredient in a life of joy? To be truly thankful for all the graces we have received and continue to receive, is the key to joy on both a psychological and spiritual level.
So, the exhortation “to rejoice” in the first two readings and responsorial song are not based on some external reality, but on an interior and eternal reality: that Jesus has come and made his home in our hearts, giving us communion with God even now and in the life to come. This is truly good news and the cause of our joy.
In the gospel today, John the Baptist teaches the people and us, about how to live our lives. You could say John gives us a recipe for experiencing joy. We can all identify with those who flocked to listen to John, looking for meaning and purpose, wanting to experience God in their lives. We see that no one was excluded; even tax collectors and soldiers recognised the need within them. The point is that every one of us is called to answer this longing within us. John’s teaching is incredibly simple: we are asked to show kindness and generosity to those in need; to be honest; and to give of our abundance, our clothing, shelter, and food, to those who have nothing. We are called to do what is right and good, fulfilling our duties in our different vocations.
This ties in well with the theme of joy this Sunday. Joy is a quality strongly related to, and dependent upon, our relationships with people and the right attitude to possessions. Joy comes to us through our generosity to others, that is, our willingness to share with them our things, and ourselves. Joy in our hearts comes when we refuse to allow pettiness and meanness to take control of us. When we are seeking to do the will of God, when we have the right attitude to people and possessions, we experience the joy of the God who comes to us and reaches out to us. Joy is a product of appreciating beauty and goodness. Gratitude to God for what he has done for us and continues to do for us, brings us joy. Our response to the beauty of the God who bends over backwards, and turns himself inside out, in order to reach out to us and give himself to us, gives us joy.
Christmas is about the beauty and humility of the God who so humbles himself out of love for us and for our salvation that he takes on human nature in becoming a tiny baby. To receive this, is to know joy. To be attentive to the God who longs for us, who comes to us in so many ways each day, is to know joy. The arrival of the Christ child at Christmas is about God sharing his all: immersing his divinity in our humanity. John speaks about the one who is coming who will baptise with the Holy Spirit and fire. We profess that the one who comes to us at Christmas, is the one who baptises with the Holy Spirit, and to be baptized with the Holy Spirit is to be immersed into the ocean of God’s love. To know God’s love is to experience deep-seated joy.
Our joy today, is in the coming of Jesus. He comes to bring us peace and joy, and gladness and love. And so, we heed the call of Zephaniah and St Paul to rejoice always, because the Lord is in our midst.
