This third Sunday of Advent, we will be lighting the pink or rose-colored candle. The three other candles are violet. The rose-colored candle indicates joyful anticipation. This Sunday is also called Gaudete Sunday or rejoicing Sunday. “Rejoice in the Lord always! I say it again. Rejoice” (Phil 4:4), the second reading exhorts us.
Action starter: Are you joyful? Do something meaningful.
Joy is intense happiness. it is great delight. Joy is an emotion that comes from deep inside and radiates into the outside. Joy overflows. It cannot be kept. It shows. A joyful person has a special aura around her. It is like she carries rays of sunshine with her. Joy is more lasting than just mere merriment or pleasure.
When was the last time that we have experienced joy? Was it after some accomplishment? Or was it because of a loving relationship? Was it because we were recognized? Great delight comes from success, from being loved and being appreciated.
Joy is not only at the end, as a consequence of an event . Joy can also be experienced in anticipation of a coming event. There is joy in expecting the arrival of a loved one who was absent for many years. Many families of our overseas workers are joyfully looking forward to the coming of their long-absent family members this Christmas.
Advent is joyful anticipation of the Lord’s coming. It is a recalling and a reliving of the Incarnation of Jesus. It is also a looking forward to a renewed time - a time that the Gospel calls as the Reign of God. John the Baptist announced the Good News about the coming of this renewed age.
This renewed age entails some change or conversion: that the tax collectors only collect what is due, that soldiers do not bully others, and that people share with the needy (Lk. 3:10ff). This anticipated renewed age is a cause for joy. It will be an age of peace, justice, and love. There is a sense of joyful participation in the mission of bringing this age about. This coming age is both a gift from God and a project for humanity.
Christian joy comes from knowing that one’s life has meaning. Human activities have a purpose. We are participants in joyfully bringing about a renewed age – an age announced by John the Baptist and inaugurated by Jesus. It is an age we continue to fulfill through out human activities animated by the Spirit of Jesus, He who came and who will come again.