“Rejoice
always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks.” Surely there are some typos, or at least some
scribal expansions, in this series of terse imperatives. Surely Paul must have meant “rejoice
sometimes; pray when you get a chance; when something good comes, give
thanks.” That would be good, humane,
reasonable advice. But, Paul dares to
dream something more extravagant for the church he loves in Thessalonica. And we proclaim that in our church as the
Word of the Lord, as an extravagant dream for us. It’s not reasonable, it’s radical: “rejoice always,
pray without ceasing, in all circumstances give thanks.”
Let’s start just with
that joy, especially as this Gaudete Sunday,
or “Rejoice!” Sunday is dedicated to that gift.
How could it be sensible to rejoice at all times? How could it make sense to rejoice when poor,
brokenhearted, captive, or a prisoner (to borrow a list of woes from
Isaiah)? It doesn’t make sense and
that’s the point, because love isn’t meant to make sense. Love is meant to make joy, and that’s totally
different. Think of the folly of pulling
totally useless plants out of the ground and presenting them to someone. At times, being joyful is as ridiculous as
giving a loved one flowers. Just as
ridiculous; just as lovely.
Pope Francis named his
first apostolic exhortation “The Joy of the Gospel” and had this to say:
“I realize of course
that joy is not expressed the same way at all times in life, especially at
moments of great difficulty. Joy adapts
and changes, but it always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our
personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely
loved. I understand the grief of people
who have to endure great suffering, yet slowly and surely we all have to let
the joy of faith slowly revive as a quiet yet firm trust… I can say that the
most beautiful and natural expressions of joy which I have seen in my life were
in poor people who had little to hold on to.
I also think of the real joy shown by others who, even amid pressing
professional obligations, were able to preserve, in detachment and simplicity,
a heart full of faith. In their own way,
all these instances of joy flow from the infinite love of God, who has revealed
himself to us in Jesus Christ.” (6-7)
That’s what grounds our
Advent joy: that God is faithful. God
believes in us. Even if everyone else
writes us off, even if we can’t see a way forward from a situation, if we don’t
even have faith in ourselves: God has faith in us, God believes in us, God is
faithful. And God invites us into that
faithfulness. God invites us into the
joy that leads to constant rejoicing.
God invites us to delight in the presence of the Spirit in every aspect
of our lives. St. Paul warns us not to
quench the Spirit; not to deny the Spirit’s closeness. Because the joy of being alert to that
presence leads to the realization that our everyday life can, and in fact must,
become a prayer. That we can respond to
the call to pray without ceasing. And we
can give thanks in all circumstances, not for all circumstances, but because we
can learn to see God’s hand at work.
Our world tries to
teach us a script of pessimism and cynicism, but the Spirit has a better script
for us. Joy, prayer and gratitude are
the tools we use to rewrite our script.
Every night before bed, I try to look back at my day with three words:
thank you, sorry and wow. The words
train me in spotting what I have to be grateful for, where I have failed to
make my life a prayer, and how I have been amazed and delighted throughout the
day. Then, I look forward to the next
day, with one word: please. I know that
tomorrow will have its own woes, mine or those of people I’m called to be there
for, and I stand in need of gift to get through tomorrow, to make it prayer.
Those four words, that
make up what’s called the prayer of Examen, train me to see what is so easy to
look past, though should be as plain as the nose on my face. They train me to see that God has clothed me,
that God’s salvation clings to me, to us, like a robe. God’s spirit is upon us, and salvation and
justice and joy are there to envelop us, embrace us, clothe us, shelter us,
warm us, and become our uniform. God’s salvation,
justice and joy are to become manifest in the world because we wear them. God gives us our Spirit wear, and it’s our
joy, our gratitude, our prayer.
It’s why we can be
joyful and grateful when poor, brokenhearted, captive or prisoner, because God
doesn’t neglect those woes. No, he has
claimed us in baptism and anointed us, clothing us with good news, healing,
liberty, release, comfort, joy.
I’m wearing rose
tonight to literally be clothed in joy for an hour. We are all really, spiritually clothed in a
far greater joy throughout our lives.
Gaudete! Rejoice!
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