There is a fundamental problem with the way society treats this time of the year. And nowhere is it more obvious than on this Gaudete Sunday ….. This “Rejoice” Sunday. The day when we celebrate JOY
And the problem, simply put, is this ….. The message that surrounds us at this time of year is that to find joy, to give joy, is to give ourselves, or others, things. Joy becomes externalized in items that we buy, wrap, give, or receive.
And that’s a lie.
Because the true essence of joy comes from appreciating the present, cherishing what we have, rather than searching for something else. Joy is to be found most fully in the Present Moments of our lives.
Take a look at children – before they have been tainted by those endless commercial messages about wanting or needing more and more things. Children have no problem finding joy in the present moment. In fact, they have an uncanny ability to find joy in whatever they are doing, in whomever they are encountering. Dancing to music. Playing peek-a-boo or hide and go seek. Building block towers and watching them fall down. Complete with smiles and giggles and squeals of delight. At this stage of life, they are not concerned with mortgage rates or national debts, Greenbelt lands or politics. They don’t care how much RAM their tablet computer has. Or the download speed of their wifi network.
They just enter life feet first. Jumping in, and rolling around in it.
And you know where else you can see this? At the other end of the age spectrum. My father in law turns 98 in a few weeks. His days, like those of his great-grandchildren are spent encountering life in its present moments. Sometimes it is in sitting outside feeding peanuts to the squirrels and chipmunks. Who, because he is patient, (like James suggests we be, in our second reading) will come up and eat right out of his hands. And he will just be present to the moment and see the beauty of Gods creation unfolding around him. Or in the people he meets and encounters each day.
It seems that the under-8’s and the over 98’s have an ability that you and I seem to have lost … It is not an altogether new phenomenon…. the Prophet Isaiah in today’s reading sees how God is revealed in the signs of nature all around us if we but enter the moment to really look. James in his letter reminds us of the virtue of patience, as we watch how life (and God) is revealed to us in God’s own time and at God’s own pace.
So perhaps the message for us on this Gaudete Sunday, and for this third week of Advent, is to perhaps be a little more aware of the joy to be found in the present moments of our day, the joy to be found in the simple things that fill our day.
In another two weeks, there will be gifts large and small around the tree. And before then, we will indeed get caught up in society’s bias to find joy in things. But maybe this coming week, we can take a little time each day to appreciate the true source of Joy in our lives – Joy that comes from the recognition that the creative spirit that brought about all that exists, who we call God, is connected to each one of us, right now. right here……
Joy that comes from the awesome insight that God became Human in the Person of Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, so that God could reveal Godself to us in a way that we could understand. And it is this that we are celebrating each Christmas……
Joy that comes from our belief that life transcends death, that light transcends darkness, that love transcends hatred……
Joy that comes from appreciating the present moments in our life cherishing what we have, rather than searching for something else.
Joy that comes from learning the wisdom of the under-8’s and the over 98’s ……