Isaiah 61:1-2a, 10-11
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1: 6-8, 19-28
"The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor,
to heal the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives
and release to the prisoners,
to announce a year of favor from the Lord
And a day of vindication by our God."
With these words, Jesus announces the beginning of his mission, and the joyful news of our salvation. This is Gaudete Sunday, a day of rejoicing indeed. As Paul says, "Rejoice always" but especially now, as we grow closer to the time of our salvation, the Second Coming of the Risen Lord.
This is a time to remember the birth of Jesus; the first coming, when God became human in the mystery of the incarnation. But we, today, are looking forward to our final salvation in the coming of the last days: the Reign of God at the end of time. This is why God has come to us as a little child, to share in everything human but sin. Jesus came to live as we live: sometimes poor, brokenhearted, captive to our limits...to give us release from our self-made prisons. This is a day of vindication; a release from all that limits us from fully rejoicing in the glory of the Lord.
It is a day to remember that Jesus died for us, and was resurrected to release us from the captivity of sin and death. It is the beginning of the end times, the day of our final resurrection.
We don't often think of this in the rush of preparations for Christmas. It is good for us to set aside some prayer time; some time to contemplate what the season really means. It began on the first Sunday of Advent, not on "Black Friday" in the shopping frenzy after Thanksgiving. We will begin to celebrate the Christmas Season, not in November and December, but on Christmas Day and into January until the Epiphany, the revelation of the Christ to the Gentiles (us). Maybe we have such a hard time with the burden of the Christmas preparations because our society has forgotten this fact: that Christmastime is the twelve days AFTER Christmas Day, not before. It is hard to prepare for Christmas and, at the same time, to celebrate it, having it come to a blunt end on December 26, with yet another day of frenzied shopping. Who can do this? It is, frankly, crazy. Yet we attempt to do it every year.
This year, let's be counter-cultural. Let's spend less time on the shopping and the partying and more on the praying and the joyful awaiting of the Messiah. Prepare we must, even in a secular way, but let's try to keep it more simple and slow down a little. It may take one or two years, but the Christmas Monster can be tamed. Really! Whose weight program needs ten dozen cookies anyway? What over-excited children really need 7 or 8 presents each?
God promises us joy and forgiveness, the Coming of the Lord again, and a giving spirit: the Spirit of God. "The One who calls you is faithful, and...will also accomplish it." Believe, and rejoice!
Kathleen Spears Hopkins holds degrees from The Catholic University of America and from the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago. She is a freelance writer specializing in Theological Reflection.
