Zep 3:14-18a | Is 12:2-3, 4, 5-6 | Phil 4:4-7 | Lk 3:10-18
Shout for joy! Sing joyfully! Be glad and exult with all your heart! Rejoice in the Lord always! Cry out with joy and gladness! Shout with exultation! Acclaim his name!
This isn’t a drill. This is Gaudete (Rejoice) Sunday! The expectation of Advent is building and today is bursting with frenetic energy and anticipation. The readings literally call us to proclaim this excitement, not in muted actions, but to “let this be known throughout all the earth,” as the psalmist says.
It sometimes seems that we struggle with joy as a church. We don’t struggle with joy as people. Think of your favorite team winning a close game, the feeling you experience embracing a loved one after a long separation, the sound of true laughter … real joy. Can you imagine that right now? Now what would it be like if we experienced and made real that authentic, confident joy as a Church? I know we’d sing louder, and maybe even dance down the aisles!
Today we are given two great examples of joy. The first is John the Baptist. John is a wild figure in the gospels. Dressed in unusual clothing and living in the desert, we imagine him as someone on the fringes of society, someone who probably lived outside of the mainstream. Not a “comfortable,” “normal” life. Although he was probably hungry and poor, he had joy and confidence in his heart. What was the source of that joy?
John was confident that the long-awaited Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One was near. So confident that he couldn’t contain himself. He couldn’t help but share his message. The spectacle of his preaching attracted crowds and people came to share the same joy and expectation that he had. Once convinced, they asked him, “What should we do?” How should we prepare ourselves to welcome this Messiah? John’s answer was probably a little unexpected.
He says to the crowds, “Whoever has two cloaks should share with the person who has none. And whoever has food should do likewise.” He says to the tax collectors, “Stop collecting more than what’s prescribed.” And to the soldiers, “Do not practice extortion, do not falsely accuse anyone, and be satisfied with your wages.”
John didn’t command them to do something wildly amazing. Nothing grand is required, he said, just the things that we might recognize as common decency. In this, John teaches us that preparation for the Messiah, the joy of expectation, is to be shared communally.
If we experience this joy in our hearts, we should not contain it, but let if overflow into the actions of our lives.
The second example of joy that we are given today is Saint Juan Diego, the poor indigenous man to whom Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared on the hill Tepeyac. Our Lady of Guadalupe is celebrated on December 12, except when it falls on a Sunday, like today. Juan Diego received the image of the Virgin on his tilma or cloak, the famous image that is revered around the world today. Mary appeared to Juan Diego and spoke to him in his native language and instructed him to tell the bishop to build a shrine to her on that hill. Juan Diego did just that, but the bishop wasn’t convinced. Mary appeared to him again, instructing him to gather roses in his cloak (unusual for the wintertime) and to present them to the bishop. When Juan opened his cloak before the bishop, the roses spilled out and the image of Our Lady was imprinted on his tilma. The bishop was then convinced and ordered that a shrine be built.
Juan Diego was canonized in 2002, and remains one of the most important saints in Mexico and the Americas. His faith and confidence in Mary’s message, his persistence with the bishop, and the joy that resulted from his encounter is celebrated worldwide with huge celebrations on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. If you have never been part of a Guadalupe celebration, these feasts are examples of true, authentic joy: dancing, singing, celebrating, and thanking God that Our Lady appeared to this humble man.
Saint Paul tells us today, “Rejoice in the Lord always.” We see in John the Baptist and Juan Diego two humble figures who live truly joyful lives despite tough circumstances. They challenge us to rejoice in the Lord always, to seek the Lord in all we do, and to make the Lord’s name known through all the earth. We do this in not in grand gestures, but in ways that say, “it is not I, but the Lord.” If we live lives that reflect the joy of the Lord, the peace of Christ that surpasses all understanding will be ours. May we follow these examples as we grow in joy and truly rejoice in the Lord, our God.