Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice!
Your kindness should be known to all. The Lord is near.
– Philippians 4:4-5

Rejoice! The Lord is near!

This Gaudete Sunday, the Church reminds us of the importance of joy. In Philippians, St. Paul tells us Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice! Joy is, in fact, one of the most important and foundational elements of the Christian life, and our Church wants us to remember this. In two verses, St. Paul teaches us an entire course on joy.

The word, Rejoice!, grabs our attention, but there is much more to it than a call to joy for our hearts. This same word is how Gabriel greets Mary at the Annunciation. It is just as correct to translate Gabriel’s greeting as “Rejoice, Full of Grace, the Lord is with You” as it is to translate is “Hail, Full of grace, the Lord is with You.” This, perhaps, helps us to understand the great happiness St. Paul wishes for our hearts. He is calling us to fill our hearts with the same kind of joy that Gabriel sought to bring to our Blessed Mother when he announced that our Lord was to be born. Our Blessed Mother, the first follower of Christ, was called–before all else–to rejoice in response to the great light that God was bringing into the world through her. We, too, are called to this great joy!

We are called to rejoice, but what is true joy? Joy must be, first of all, rightly ordered. True joy and fulfillment concerns the proper good of man, which is union with God. Therefore, true joy comes from the Lord. This is why St. Paul tells us to “Rejoice in the Lord.” Joy, second, must be uninterrupted. Sin and its effects rob us of joy. True joy will not be concerned with worldly things and will be untouched by sin. When we truly rejoice, we will rejoice “always” as St. Paul calls us to do. Third, rejoicing cannot be contained to one thing. When we truly rejoice in God, we also rejoice in his works and in all the good his creation has wrought. We rejoice in the Birth of Christ, we rejoice in the virtues of others, and we rejoice in our contemplation of God. St. Paul hints at this when he writes, “I say it again: rejoice!”

When we experience and exhibit this true joy, what will it look like? St. Paul writes that “your kindness should be known to all” in the middle of this wonderful note of joy. This is no mistake. When we live a life of joy, a life which finds its happiness in God and his works, then we will live a life of kindness, considerateness, forbearance, and fairness. The Greek term does not translate well into one word, but the sentiment is that a joy-filled life will be a life of fitting likeness to the life of Christ. This should not be a surprise to us. A life in union with God is a life of joy. Christ was always union with his Father in Heaven. No matter what he experience, he had delight in his Father’s works and was filled with joy. A life of Christlike humility, kindness, and virtue is a fruit of the joyful heart.

And this brings us to the most important point of it all: the cause of our joy. Our joy is from Christ, but there is even more cause for rejoicing: “the Lord is near!” The Lord is near to our humanity, having become one of us, a moment we will soon celebrate on Christmas. The Lord is near to us at every moment, because he sent his Holy Spirit to dwell in us. The Lord is near to us, perhaps most importantly, every time that he gives us his flesh to eat and his blood to drink in the Eucharist.

We are blessed with the most precious of gifts: a God who desires to be near to us, and who desire that we are near to Him. He has come down to this earth to be with us. He has sent his Spirit to live in us. He has given us his flesh and blood to be one with us. We have every reason for joy. He has filled us with grace, granted us membership in his kingdom, and offered us the promise of eternal life. With such incredible blessings from our God, we can rightly argue that our most important duty as Catholics is to rejoice in God. May our hearts be filled with joy at this Mass so that, like our Blessed Mother who was filled with joy at the message of Gabriel, we may be filled with joy as we receive the grace of God at this Mass and bring Christ into the world.

Homily for Gaudete Sunday
Scriptures (1962 Missal): Philippians 4:4-7; John 1:19-28
Scriptures (Modern Missal): Zephaniah 3:14-18a; Isaiah 12:2-3, 4, 5-6; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:10-18