Let Yourself be Found and Rejoice

Sheep #100. Amazed and grateful to be back in the pasture.

Every year the Church calls today, the third Sunday of Advent, “Gaudete Sunday.” “Gaudium” is the Latin word for joy, and “gaudete” is the same word in the form of an imperative, a command or mandate. Today is “rejoice and be glad Sunday.”
 
Each year, I wrestle for a moment with the irony of being commanded to rejoice. It sometimes feels like an oxymoron, like planning to be spontaneous. Something in me wonders if maybe being joyful is a feeling, a mood, and the human heart is too layered and complicated to command.
 
However, a few days ago at daily Mass, a better perspective hit me. The Gospel was the parable of the shepherd with a hundred sheep. 99 of them are safe, but one goes astray, and the shepherd goes to find him. I wondered how would it feel to be the hundredth sheep, the one who got found. If sheep #100 could talk, he might say:
 
Yeah, I had wandered away from the flock, I was lost in the woods. I could hear the wolves howling, see their eyes in the dark. Given how I’d wandered away, maybe I deserved whatever was coming next. But then Jesus found me, swept me up on his shoulders, and brought me back to the pasture. Now I’m safe, back where I can gambol and frolic again!
 
This is the non-ironic, earnest perspective we want for today: we are each sheep #100, the lost coin, the prodigal son. Our sins deserved judgment, but Jesus wiped the slate clean. We can get back to where we belong. Pop the cork - it’s Gaudete Sunday.
 
GK Chesterton says that “gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” When I think of myself as sheep #100, I am astonished and grateful. I rejoice at the miracle of it all. Our sins still cause damage, and we need to repair that, but the font of new life is real, even in the most broken situations. That’s why it’s Gaudete Sunday. I’m reading today’s scriptures from the perspective of the hundredth sheep, a found and forgiven sinner.
 
In today’s first reading, it’s the seventh century BC, and we’re hearing from the third chapter of Zephaniah. In chapters one and two, Zephaniah has been justifiably ranting about the sins and complacency of Israel. Today’s reading is God’s love song for the remnant, the ones who humbly persevered, or who humbly confessed and returned. When we identify with this remnant, God’s presence regenerates us. “Be glad and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem, the Lord has removed the judgment against you.” It’s Gaudete Sunday because we’re amazed and grateful that, despite everything, new life is still possible.
 
In today’s second reading, Paul is in prison. When he writes rejoice in the Lord always, don’t be anxious, let your kindness be known to all, he’s not being glib. He has the moral authority of an innocent man writing from behind bars. I’m getting off easy by comparison. I’d better listen.
 
Also, in the original context, he’s addressing two specific women in the church at Philippi - by name, Euodia and Syntyche – who are having a quarrel. The purpose of today’s passage is to coach Euodia, Synteche, and also the wider community on how to pray, dig deep, and be magnanimous in the face of self-justification and temptations to bitterness.
 
Peter Kreeft, a professor at Boston College, says that Paul’s Greek word, translated today as “kindness,” isn’t just generic niceness, but an unusual patience or graciousness, a type of forbearing, indefatigable reasonableness. Paul isn’t saying always look on the bright side and be a doormat. He’s saying stop nursing the grudge, and give yourself over to something bigger and grander, for God is near. Even from prison, even when there’s a quarrel with the people we’re supposed to love, a humble, confessing heart can find God. The grace that flows will give us superpowers, a font of new possibilities. Pop the cork, it’s Gaudete Sunday.
 
Finally today’s Gospel. John the Baptist has also been preaching repentance, a 180, a new turn to God. The crowds are astonished and ask what then should we do, how then should we live. He says a couple things:

First, be charitable. He gives several active examples: not being greedy, not falsely accusing people, learning to be content with our circumstances.
 
But that’s not all. John talks about a new baptism in Christ. What does that mean? It  is an invitation to a new posture in life, a new way of moving through our remaining days, a stance where we let God penetrate our shell. It is a type of surrender, of yielding our attempts at self-justification, and asking forgiveness. It means identifying as the hundredth sheep, and letting ourselves be found. It means letting ourselves be winnowed, gathered, chastened, cleansed by holiness.
 
When we take this step, we’re trusting God’s grandeur and goodness. God’s grace will take over, and new life really does come. Gaudete and amen.

Pope Benedict XVI in Gaudete Sunday vestments.