Recently I was reading a book by Arthur Simon titled; “How Much is Enough?” “Hungering for God in an affluent culture”. In chapter four subtitled “Rushing to nowhere”, the message fit so well especially in this time of year, with all the commercialism around us leading up to Christmas day and what lay under the tree. This time of year we move so fast that we miss what this Advent Season is all about!
Chapter four of the book starts off with a story that goes like this: “They were running hand in hand, and the queen went so fast that is was all Alice could do to keep up with her. And still the queen kept saying, Faster, Faster!”….The most curious part about the thing, is that….however fast they went, they never seemed to pass anything.
“In our country”, said Alice… “You’d generally get to somewhere else— if you ran very fast for a longtime as we’ve been doing.”
“A slow sort of country!” said the queen. “Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”
Ours is a restless culture. Life has become excessively busy for a large portion of the population. We start moving so fast that we do forget to stop and smell the roses, we fail to stop and reflect on what Advent is all about. We create stress in our lives that becomes part of our body’s clock.
What happens when we drive up to another vehicle on the highway that is going 50 MPH in the 55MPH speed zone? Anxiety sets in,
We look for a spot to pass even though the destination is only 2 miles away. Let me give you another scenario: It is already half way through Advent but I haven’t got half the presents I need to get. I haven’t sent half the cards I need to send. Panic starts to set in. I start to run faster and faster going nowhere, I start to go down in flames, CHRISTMAS BURN OUT!
But despite how I feel, I speed up only to miss all that is passing me by, and still the big day, Christmas, is only a few days away. I frantically go from place to place, to fill my list of presents. Will I even make it? Will I have enough time even to enjoy the season? Dose this sound familiar to some of you?
What is so special, even in the midst of all this panic and stress, the Church sends us the third Sunday of Advent which is called Gaudete Sunday, a name meaning Rejoice, a name derived from the ancient entrance antiphon; “Rejoice in the Lord, and again I say Rejoice!”
One might say, why should I rejoice? The day was long and hard, and I’m tired. A crazy person tried to run me off the road. Another was following so close to my rear bumper I thought that person was a passenger in my rear seat. I battled the crowds to fill my list of presents. I don’t need someone with a smiling face telling me that I should be happy!!
But we also know that there is a reason why centuries of tradition have focused this 3rd Sunday of Advent on the need to rejoice!!!
As we in the Church wait for the coming of the Lord in his full glory, we can get just a little bit tired. After all, we have been waiting for over 2000 years.
We can forget that even though the Lord is not with us yet in his Glory, He is still with us. John the Baptist had to tell the people that: “There stands among you – unknown to you – the one who is coming”.
And you know, it is the same for us today, even though we can so easily forget it. However, Gaudete Sunday is a reminder of why we should be rejoicing.
As we dig through the crowds at K-Mart and Wal-mart, as we shop till we drop, as we stand in the long lines at the Post Office the to mail those last minute cards, as we go to work, as we go to bed at night, the Lord is with us.
We may have forgotten who it is that gives us the strength to face another day, we may have forgotten who it is that gives us the grace to experience every little joy and happiness that comes our way.
Most of you can remember the days when the pews were over half full during the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. Now days we are very lucky to see 2 or 3 in the pew at any given time. We even forget that Jesus is among us over there in the Tabernacle. Do you feel he deserves at least a bow as we walk by?
The Lord is always here with us, every moment of our lives, no matter where we are, where we go. He himself, is the one who sustains us. Doesn’t this give us a reason to Rejoice? You bet it does. And here in the Mass we are given the clearest expression of our Lord’s presence – because he comes to us in Holy Communion. This is so evident in the revised translation especially when we say; “Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof–yes, Jesus is coming to us. He has not and never will wait for us. He is always coming to us.
Very soon the bread and wine will be changed so that they are no longer bread and wine but are the Lord’s body and blood, soul and divinity. And even now, at this very moment he is present in our tabernacle, present in his physical reality.
Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist is not an isolated event in our lives. His perfect unsurpassed presence here is also a reminder that He is continually present to us in many other ways in our lives.
In the homily I gave just a couple of weeks ago, I talked about how we could see Jesus in others, in the sick, the imprisoned, in the homeless, and in the one sitting next to you this very moment. And He lives in us if we allow him to do so. He comes to live under our roof, to live in us and through us. If we would only remember- Rejoice, I say again Rejoice. John the Baptist does not want us to forget and neither does Jesus.
As we go forward to complete our shopping lists, as we go forward to get those Christmas cards mailed in time, as we continue to prepare ourselves for that special day on the 25th of December, as we contemplate what those presents are under the tree, let us not forget that we are celebrating the birth of Jesus and also preparing ourselves for when He will come in His full glory.
But let also remember that Jesus is with us now. Let us give Him thanks and praise and let us “Rejoice in the Lord, and again I say Rejoice!!!!