Exiit qui seminat - Rejoice In The Lord Always
Gaudete in Domino sempiternum; dico gaudete! "Rejoice in the Lord always; I say again rejoice!" These are the opening words of the Introit or the Entrance Antiphon used at the beginning of Mass for this Sunday, the 3rd Sunday of Advent. As we've seen and heard since the last Sunday in November, Advent is separated into two distinct parts. The first part (the 1st and 2nd Sunday) focus on the Second Coming of Christ. The second part (the 3rd and 4th Sunday) recall the birth of our Lord. This special Sunday, Gaudete Sunday, is seen as that turning point of our liturgical journey and shows the shift from when Christ will come in glory to our preparation for Christmas and our celebration of the Incarnation (Jesus taking on a human body, taken from the Latin incarntus est meaning "to become flesh"). The readings point to the great gift of the Word becoming Flesh and dwelling among us. The Messiah proclaims in the prophet of Isaiah that, "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" and we hear the underpinnings of Christ's birth by listening to the Prologue of John's Gospel, the deeply theologically rich beginning of the Gospel of John that announces that Christ is the light that overcomes the darkness of sin and death.
If we look at the Latin conjugation of the word gaudete, we will find that it is in the imperative tense, that it is a command. So we are commanded by the Lord to rejoice! In a world that is so preoccupied by so many different difficulties and concerns, anxieties and doubts, sinfulness and selfishness, we are commanded by God to not be distracted by such things and to focus on the one person that should be the center of our lives. How are we preparing for the celebration of the birth of the Christ Child? How have we made room in our hearts for the joy of the Lord to dwell? What must we do in order to overcome the issues of our world and realize that they pale in comparison to the love of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit? As we prepare for the celebration of Christmas, let us ask our Lord for the grace to live out our lives of faith and cry out with all of our voices, REJOICE
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Fr. Rob Sinatra
