The third Sunday of Advent is traditionally called "Gaudete
Sunday" or the "Sunday to rejoice.” It goes back to a time when
Advent was more deeply penitential than it is today. Gaudete Sunday signaled
the halfway mark signifying that Advent was almost over. People were invited to
rejoice that Christmas was near. This year, however, we have the shortest
possible Advent as we celebrate the last Sunday of Advent in the morning, and
Christmas Eve in the late afternoon and evening of the same day.
On this Gaudete Sunday, many people do not look forward to
Christmas with joy. In fact, some view the coming Christmas season not with joy
but with dread. Just as we have Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber
Monday, Gaudete Sunday for many people is "anxiety Sunday." That
anxiety can have many sources. Negative experiences of Christmas in the past,
current illness, the memory of a loved one who is no longer with us, family
problems or family divisions can all lead to profound apprehension about the
coming Christmas celebration.
The idealized media portrayal of happily united families gathered
around the table or the Christmas tree might lead us to imagine that everyone's
Christmas is just as perfect and to the extent that ours isn't, we feel we have
failed.
Christmas, however is more than a winter frolic with beautiful
people in beautiful surroundings. Christmas and the Incarnation it celebrates
is deeper than that. Today's readings provide an antidote to a difficult Christmas season for some, maybe even for many.
Isaiah of Babylon, in today's first reading, speaks of his
mission to bring glad tiding to the poor, healing to the brokenhearted, liberty
to captives and release to prisoners. Christmas is precisely for those in need
of forgiveness, healing, consolation and release from addictions as well as
painful memories. Christmas means that the Lord is with us to transform the
winter of our souls into a springtime of a new life as the Lord gives us the
grace to heal the past.
In the second reading, St. Paul writes to the Thessalonians and
to us to recognize the Holy Spirit among us, to respect the prophetic
utterances and teaching given us to discern the ways God is speaking in our
midst today.
In the Gospel reading, John the Baptist points his followers to
Jesus as the one who takes away the sins of the world and thereby opens the
door to a new future.
The best medicine for the Christmas melancholy some may feel is
to give time to being with those who are alone at this time of year. For people
in nursing homes whose world has become limited, we can be an Isaiah, a St.
Paul or a John the Baptist helping them to see God's presence to heal the past,
to recognize God in the present and to look to a new future with Christ. As we
help them to experience Christmas, we will come to know the joy, the real joy,
the deep joy, the liberating joy, the ancient joy of Christmas once more.
Fr. Krempa is pastor of St. Bridget of Ireland Church in
Berryville.