Gaudete Sunday

On this third Sunday, also called “Sunday of Joy” and hope for the imminent coming of the Redeemer, the liturgy invites us to rejoice because the prophecies are coming true: the Messiah who is about to be born is truly the announced Son of God. Christmas is near and Christ, source of love and joy, is born to save us and make us live in truth, love, and peace.

Archbishop George Gänswein emphasized that one of Pope Benedict’s essential qualities for understanding the faith was joy. For him if faith does not lead to joy, “something is not right in one’s life of faith. Benedict XVI, is a theologian of joy.”

"Joy today is increasingly saddled with moral and ideological burdens, so to speak. When someone rejoices, he is afraid of offending against solidarity with the many people who suffer. I don’t have any right to rejoice, people think, in a world where there is so much misery, so much injustice. I can understand that. There is a moral attitude at work here. But this attitude is nonetheless wrong. The loss of joy does not make the world better – and, conversely, refusing joy for the sake of suffering does not help those who suffer. The contrary is true.  The world needs people who discover the good, who rejoice in it and thereby derive the impetus and courage to do good. Joy, then, does not break with solidarity. When it is the right kind of joy, when it is not egotistic, when it comes from the perception of the good, then it wants to communicate itself, and it gets passed on. 

When our joy comes from trust in God and not mere optimism, when our joy comes from confidence in God and not mere positivity, then we can discover the greatest mystery, the ability to feel joy even in the midst of suffering. We have to dig deep and find that “primordial trust” in God, and have the “courage to rejoice!” so that we may always have a reason ready to explain the “hope that is in you” to others.