Homily Third Sunday of Advent, “How Can I Rejoice?”
Homily Third Sunday of Advent, “How Can I Rejoice?”
Rejoice always! The first words of the epistle today are kind of jarring. The words come at the end of the Letter to the Thessalonians. We could say that they are part of the final advice that Paul gives the Christian community.
Somehow it seems unrealistic to expect that we can always rejoice. We all know that we have gray days, we have sunny days. Right now, we are having a lot of dark days. During the last week we lost dozens of our Quad Cities neighbors to the Coronavirus. We have lost our first diocesan priest to this illness, Msgr. Richard Soseman, who grew up here in the Quad Cities and was a graduate of Alleman. Several other priests have been stricken. The plight of the clergy reflects what is going on in the larger population. Clergy are not more protected.
We are sad. If we were not sad it would be weird. We needn’t feel guilty about it. As the Book of Ecclesiastes says, “There is a time….to weep, a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance.” If we don’t acknowledge our feelings, then this is probably not very healthy. We have probably all know people who never will admit to sadness because they think that this denotes weakness. Unfortunately, these are people who may end up with emotional problems.
We might ask if there is something else, we need to address that is behind some of our sadness. We have a deadly sin we call covetousness. We might want to be aware of this sin right now. What it is it all about? We usually equate it with being envious of what others have. If we have a new car, but someone buys a bigger, flashier car we can get jealous. If someone has a new cell phone that has more features than ours, we are tempted to get one for ourselves. Capitalism is fueled by advertising that reminds us that we should never be satisfied. If everyone feels all right about what they own, then that would be bad for the economy.
But covetousness is deeper than that. We are finding out right now that this is true. What’s on our mind? We constantly hear about how this holiday season won’t be happy because we won’t be able to have the concerts we normally have. Cocktail parties will be out of the question. Travel is ill advisable. We won’t have the time with loved ones that we all desire. All this settles on us like a big wet blanket.
But again, St. Paul’s words, echo in our consciousness. We are to rejoice always. Joy is different than happiness. Happiness is a feeling. Joy is a virtue. A feeling is not something we can control. A virtue is something we can seek to practice. How do we cultivate joy?
St. Paul offers us a recipe for joy in the epistle today. Joy rests on three practices. Someone once said it is like a three-legged stool. When we have all three legs on solid ground the stool doesn’t turn over very easily.
We need first to pray. We know that praying is to the supernatural life what breathing is to the natural life. We can’t be in touch with the spiritual part of ourselves if we aren’t praying. How are we doing right now with our prayer? Is prayer something we consciously engage in? Or is it an afterthought. Do we only offer quick prayers in a moment of crisis? The better course is to make time to talk to God on a regular basis. If we do, life will be brighter.
The second thing we need to do is to give thanks. Every prayer time should be a time to give thanks. We might want to thank God when we have something to eat. We might thank God when the cold rain lands on the roof over our head. We might thank God if we wake up in the morning without a fever. We might praise God if we have people who we live with who help us. The list of things we can be thankful for is probably longer than we think.
The third leg of the stool revolves around having the ability to rejoice. What do we rejoice in? Maybe the Our Lady shows us the way. We might reflect on the only lengthy speech she ever gives in the Gospel. When she sees her cousin Elizabeth is pregnant, she utters her Magnificat. She speaks of the big picture.
“My soul magnifies the Lord.”
“God has confused the proud.”
“God has deposed the mighty.”
“The Lord has lifted up the lowly.”
“The rich have been sent away empty.”
“The Lord has kept his promises.”
As believers we rejoice in the Incarnation. Any other blessing is of little consequence in relationship to this.
When we pray, give thanks, find our joy in our relationship with Jesus we cultivate lasting joy. We remember all that on this Gaudete Sunday. We rejoice that “The light shines on in the darkness, a darkness that did not overcome it.” (John 1:5)
Reflection Questions:
- Am I rejoicing right now? What is on my mind? Have I talked to God about it?
- Did Our Lady have a lot to worry about in her life? How was she able to rejoice?
Dear Parishioners,
Christmas is fast approaching. This year it is unclear what we can expect regarding our liturgical celebrations. We still have the pandemic hanging over our heads. Over the last several months we have had about one third of our regular Mass attendance. This is understandable since there is a health risk to gathering in groups. So far, we have managed to keep people safe. At Christmas we usually have some of the largest numbers of people coming to Mass. We are trying to be as accommodating as we can.
We will continue to follow protocols. This means that if you are coming to a Christmas Mass you need to go to our website and register. We will take 125 registrations for each Mass. If a Mass is full you are asked to register for another Mass. When Christmas comes, if a Mass registration is full, we will not allow anyone into Mass that is not registered. If a Mass does not have 125 registrations, we will allow walk-ins until capacity is reached. If the church has reached capacity, we will politely inform people who come to the door which Masses still have open spots.
There are other options as well. We will livestream the 4 p.m. Mass Christmas Eve and the 9 a.m. Mass Christmas morning. After 9 a.m. Mass we will distribute communion outside, if weather permits, or in doors if the weather is bad.
For safety reasons, we do not want to pack people into the church. I feel this would be irresponsible. We also need to sanitize the church between Masses, this complicates things more. Our celebrations will be simple this year. We will try to move people in and out of the church in an efficient, but reverent manner. I thank all of you for your cooperation. I would love to accommodate everyone who wants to come to Mass, but it is really a matter of looking out for everyone’s health. I would hate to think that we might have a super spreader event because of our Masses.
Blessings,
Fr. Mark