LOOK for JOY!
This Third Sunday of Advent is familiarly known as Gaudete Sunday – a Latin word that means “rejoice” – the first word of the Entrance Antiphon (at Mass): “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near.” As you know, we mark Gaudete Sunday by lighting a pink candle (in the Advent wreath). Also, the celebrant at Mass wears rose colored vestments. The church – we – rejoice because the Promised One is little more than a week away.
We are called to live as people of joy. But in everyday life, I get the impression that “joy” is on the decline. What is often the response when someone asks: “How was your day?” My sense is that the theme of joy is something of a rare commodity. I hear responses such as “It was OK” or “Could have been better.” or “I’m just so tired of so and so doing such and such.” Or, “I’m exhausted. Or “Don’t ask.” To have joy or – or as they would say in slang – to do joy – is to have a deep sense of delight. The Greek origin of the word literally means “for the heart, in its deepest place of passion and feelings, to be well.” That’s what it’s like to have joy.
So why is joy so rare? Well, it occurs to me (and not me alone), that to experience joy in one’s life four qualities must be found. First, joy takes time. Joy comes of living a “savored” life. It comes of having time and taking time to smell the roses, to observe the pace of a sandhill crane as it crosses the street, to glory in a sunset. Joy needs time. There is this old monastic saying about living a joy-filled life. If you are sipping tea or watering a plant, or gazing at an icon, do just that. We call this “being there” or being “in the moment”. We know – and more than that, we believe, that each moment is pregnant with God’s real presence and promise and providential care. Look for it; wait for it; savor it. Don’t just visit life; life needs time to be lived abundantly.
Joy requires acceptance – a “yes” to life, the life we’ve been given. We may have discovered at some point that the script we’ve been handed in the play of life is not the part we thought we were trying out for. We have to be content that “where God has placed us, that is our pulpit.” Joy requires a deep willingness to accept we are God’s creature and that God is at work according to God’s good pleasure. Joyful persons accept the good gifts of life that actually are there. They do not live in a state of resentment for what might have been or what “used to be.” In God’s plan, there is a reason why today is not tomorrow. We need all of today to prepare us to receive the promise of tomorrow.
So, being joyful takes time and acceptance. Joy, a gift of the Spirit, has to be desired. If you want the gift of joy, ask God for the gift with open heart and hands to accept the gift as God shapes it.
To be joyful we need stability, patience and endurance. Maybe that’s why Jesus says: “Truly I tell you: you will have sorrow, but your sorrow will turn into joy.
Life for most people is not picture perfect, but there is so much joy to be found If we simply look for joy. Be on the lookout – See and reflect the joy right before your eyes. The more we dwell on our everyday blessings, the more they seem to multiply. And by experiencing more joy in my own life, I have more joy to give away. Joy is a beautiful gift to embrace, celebrate and give away at Christmastime. And, in doing so, we increase our own joy.
~by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB
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