“I rejoice Hardly…I mean Heartily…in the Lord” By Brian Flanagan

“I rejoice hardly…I mean heartily…in the Lord” by Brian Flanagan

Third Sunday of Advent Real men wear pink. At least that’s what some of my priest friends tell me. The Third Sunday of Advent is one of two times in the year that the priests wear pink vestments. Technically the color is “rose”, but I’m the kind of guy that could barely tell the difference between scarlet and magenta without looking it up.

The Third Sunday of Advent is “Gaudete” Sunday, which means “Rejoice!”. St. Paul tells us in the 2nd Reading to “rejoice always”, but we’ll focus on the first reading from Isaiah where it says, “I rejoice heartily in the Lord.” Joy is one of the twelve fruits of the Holy Spirit and is a sure sign that someone is living out their Christian faith.

But when’s the last time you went to Mass and it looked like everyone there was bursting at the seems with joy? If anything you see generally the opposite – half of the people at Mass seem to be in misery and the other half seem to be just barely tolerating being there. And this doesn’t end with Mass – many of these same people lack this same apparent joy at school, in their places of work, or at home. It’s almost as if they misheard the first reading at Mass and thought it was “I rejoice hardly in the Lord” instead of “heartily”.  If that’s you…you’re doing it wrong. Incidentally I bet some of these same people go into confession and in the Act of Contrition say “I am hardly sorry for having offended thee” instead of “heartily”.

So what does “rejoicing heartily” mean? According to Google, it means being loudly vigorous and cheerful in your rejoicing. In other words, rejoicing as though your team just won the Super Bowl. Rejoicing as though you just had your first child. Rejoicing as though you just got accepted into your top choice of college. Rejoicing as though you just proposed to your girlfriend and she said “yes!” Rejoicing as though it’s National Coffee Day and Dunkin’ Donuts is giving out free coffee. That’s the kind of rejoicing we’re supposed to be doing as Catholics – rejoicing in God himself!

Isaiah says, “I rejoice heartily in the LORD, in my God is the joy of my soul…” Mary in her Magnificat exclaimed, “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior”. We should remember this well during Advent, because the refrain of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” is “Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.”

“Rejoicing always” also doesn’t mean we have to be “happy” all the time, but the joy of the Lord should put everything else into perspective for us. On days when we get stuck in traffic, soaked in the rain on the way to class, or spill coffee all over a notebook, thinking back to the joy we have in the Lord should help us hang in there and get through it. So this Gaudete Sunday, don’t walk around looking like your team just lost the World Series, but think back to the joy we have in the Lord, let it have an impact on you, and don’t be surprised when people notice.