(Third Sunday of Advent (B): This
homily was given on December 11, 2011 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I. by
Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Isaiah 61:
1-2a, 10-11; 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-24.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Third Sunday of Advent 2011]
Most people would probably say
that the opposite of joy is sorrow.
But I would say that the opposite
of joy—at this time of the year, at least—is not sorrow; rather it’s
“circumstances.”
I say that because our sorrow at
this time of year, during these 4 weeks of Advent, is usually rooted in circumstances—negative
circumstances—challenging circumstances—discouraging and depressing
circumstances—either in our own families and personal lives, or somewhere out
there in the world.
I’m sure we all can remember bad
things that have happened in years past just before Christmas. When I was a student at Providence College,
for example, they had a terrible dorm fire in Aquinas Hall one night in
mid-December, which killed ten young women.
I think of that tragic event every year at this time. It’s one of the negative circumstances I have
to deal with annually during Advent.
Getting diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease two days before Christmas
last year will be another one I can add to my list from now on—at least until I
get cured or healed!
We all have our lists, don’t
we? Perhaps someone you love died this
December, or in a December of the past; maybe you lost your job this month—or
maybe you lost it this month a year ago
and have been unemployed ever since. Or
perhaps it’s just the moral decline and growing secularization of our society
that’s getting you discouraged—something that was symbolized so well in our
state a couple of weeks ago by our own governor, who, sadly, doesn’t seem to
know what a Christmas tree is!
Talk about a depressing
circumstance!
And then we come to Mass on this
Third Sunday of Advent and the Church tells us to “Rejoice!” In our first reading Isaiah says, “I rejoice
heartily in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul!” In the responsorial psalm we say (or sing),
“My soul rejoices in my God.” And then
St. Paul tells us in this text from 1 Thessalonians 5 to “Rejoice ALWAYS”—not
just sometimes, not just when things are going well, not just in good
circumstances on sunny days in July—but ALWAYS!
Today is Gaudete Sunday. It’s the Sunday when we light the pink candle
on the Advent wreath, signifying that Advent is more than half over and that Christmas
is fast approaching. Gaudete in Latin
literally means, “Rejoice!” It’s an
imperative; it’s a command—from Jesus, through his Church.
But it’s a tough command for many
of us to obey as much as we might like to, because of those negative circumstances
I mentioned earlier. Now to some extent,
these realities are always present in
our lives and in our world; however they do seem to have more of a negative impact
on us at this time of year. I think
that’s because, with all the festivity and celebration that’s going on around
us, it can seem like everyone else is perfectly happy and having a great time.
But that’s an illusion. As I indicated a few moments ago, everyone has
a list of circumstances—circumstances that threaten to undermine their joy. Even if they don’t seem to have a list, trust
me, they do!
So here’s the situation we find
ourselves in during this holy season (and to some extent throughout the year):
Either our negative circumstances will overcome our joy, or joy will overcome our
negative circumstances.
It’s either one or the other.
If circumstances win out in us,
we will be miserable; if joy wins, then we’ll be able to rejoice in the way
that our Scriptures today tell us to. We’ll
be able to do that in spite of all our problems.
In this regard, I came across
something very interesting the other day in a homily by Fr. Roger Landry, who’s
a priest from the Diocese of Fall River.
In this talk that I read online, he lists 4 things that can rob us of
our joy (4 things, in other words, that can cause negative circumstances to win
the victory in us). See if you can
identify with any of these:
The first is self-pity: “Oh woe is me—I have so many problems; I have so many more
problems than other people have. I have
more cooking to do than anyone else. I
have more shopping to do than anyone else. I have more aches and pains than anyone
else. I have to go and listen to Fr. Ray
every week at church. Poor, poor me!”
You know the kind of litany I’m
talking about.
The second is worry.
Worry and joy cannot co-exist, just like self-pity and joy cannot
co-exist. In his homily, Fr. Landry
mentioned Pope John XXIII, who, as you might imagine, had an awful lot to worry
about as the leader of the Church at the beginning of Vatican II. But he conquered his worry through prayer—by
consciously and consistently putting his own life and the life of the Church
into God’s hands. Fr. Landry wrote, “Pope
John XXIII, who had responsibility for the whole Church, used to go in to visit
the Lord in his private chapel each night and give the problems back to [God],
saying, ’It’s your Church, Lord, I’m going to bed.’”
Sometimes the simplest prayers
are the best!
The third thing that can undermine
joy happens, Fr. Landry says, “When we
place our happiness in something other than God, on acclaim, advancement,
promotion, recognition, fame, prestige, power, money, anything.” And this is exactly what the world encourages
us to do at this time of year, is it not?
No wonder so many people are miserable!
The cultural message we get every December is, “Buy this, and you’ll be
happy”; “Drink this, eat this, get this game, have this at your party and
you’ll have Christmas joy in your heart.”
It’s a lie, but it’s a lie that
many people believe—or at least they act
like they believe it.
Which brings us to the 4th
reality that can ruin joy: complaining. Chronic complainers are fixated on the
negative, and being fixated on the negative makes rejoicing almost
impossible. As Fr. Landry put it, “We
lose our joy by complaining.” He then
added, “Some of us would have complained about the menu at the Last Supper.”
I’m sure that’s not true of anyone
here in our parish, but apparently it was true of some people in his.
The final point that needs to be
made in all this concerns the alternative.
Yes, self-pity, worry, focusing on things other than God and complaining
all rob us of joy—that’s true. But
what’s the alternative? What is it that will
deepen our joy in December and in every other month of the year? What will give us the ability to rejoice
always, as St. Paul tells us to in today’s second reading?
The answer is simple, but very hard
to put into practice: We need to focus on what we know, by faith, to
be true. In other words, we
need to reflect and meditate on what we believe about God and about life—and
about ourselves! This, not surprisingly,
is where Isaiah the prophet found his joy.
Notice what he says here. He
says, “I rejoice heartily in the Lord
(not in things—not in other people—not in the good circumstances of life—IN THE
LORD!), in my God is the joy of my
soul!” The psalm refrain (which is a direct
quote from Mary in her Magnificat) has the same message: “My soul rejoices in my God.”
Mary and Isaiah understood this
principle.
So the bottom line is this: God created
you in his image and likeness. He loves
you, perfectly, completely and unconditionally.
He sent his Son into this world 2,000 years ago to save you from your
sins and to give you a kingdom that will last forever. He will never abandon you, and will always provide
for your needs.
Those are some of the
foundational truths of our Catholic faith.
They were true yesterday; they’re true today; they will always be
true.
That means they will be true in
the best circumstances of our lives and in the absolute worst of circumstances
of our lives! So we can always rejoice in
them, because they are unchanging!
They’re timeless! My health may change,
my family may change, my friends may change, my job situation may change—but
the truth of who God is and what he has done for me will never, ever change.
So that’s where my focus and
yours needs to be, in December—and always.
