Today, the Church celebrates Gaudete Sunday, the Sunday of rejoicing! Today we light the rose-colored candle and put away the dark purple vestments and replace them with the rose-colored vestments. The reason for this change is so we’ll understand that the dark night in which the world waited helplessly for its Savior is coming to an end; Christmas is drawing closer—Christ will soon be born! Rejoice!
Jesus is the bright sun that lights up the dark night sky, and he is drawing nearer to us; the spiritual horizon is beginning to glow with a pale, rose-colored light. The rose candle and vestments are visual reminders from the first reading from Isaiah that calls us to rejoice.
But isn’t this a naïve, childish thing to do in today’s world? After all, the world is still filled with sin, war and horrible acts of depravity. Every day in the media we hear about death, violence, genocide and natural disasters. Every day thousands of babies are killed by abortion, innocent women and children are sold into slavery, people who seem to have everything plunge into despair and commit suicide. Isn’t it foolish to rejoice in the middle of such a suffering world? Not at all!
We don’t rejoice today because we believe Jesus came to bring heaven down to earth. No, we rejoice because we know that Jesus came to open a path of light for us from earth to heaven. The joy of all Christians is the joy of hope that has been guaranteed by God himself. This is true joy, and Christ is its source.
On Gaudete Sunday 2005, Pope Benedict XVI offered us these words of hope: “To transform the world, God chose a humble young girl from a village in Galilee, Mary of Nazareth, and challenged her with this greeting: ‘Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you.’ In these words are found the secret of an authentic Christmas. God repeats them to the Church, to each one of us: Rejoice, the Lord is close!”
Tom Sawyer finds light in the darkness
Do you remember the final chapters of Mark Twain’s classic novel, Tom Sawyer? Tom and his friend Becky were exploring a cave, just for the sake of adventure. But the cave was full of dark caverns and twisting passages, and as they explored, they ended up getting lost. Fear set in; they started to panic; their candles, the only light they had, were running low.
An entire day went by; their candles were now spent; they lost track of time; they were becoming desperate. Still, they kept wandering in the darkness, looking for the smallest glimpse of daylight. But they didn’t even know if it was night or day any longer. They were afraid that they may pass right by a passageway that leads out of the cave, because if it was nighttime outside, they wouldn’t see any light at the entrance. Finally, they spotted a little point of light far in the distance, and they followed it to freedom.
Christ is our powerful point of light
The fallen human race is like Tom and Becky lost in the dark caverns of a fallen world. We light little candles—like money, pleasure, fame or comfort—but they all too quickly burn out. But Christ, the eternal Son of God, is the everlasting light that has conquered the darkness. And he has given us a glimpse of everlasting life. His incarnation into our fallen world has become for us the powerful point of light in our dark cave that gives us the source of true and lasting joy, not the anemic joy that comes from the flickering of a fragile candle. And all we have to do to free ourselves from this dark cave of sin is to faithfully follow this Light out of the darkness.
Today, as the Lord Jesus renews his presence among us in the Holy Eucharist, let’s promise him that as we approach the joyful celebration of Christmas, we will let the light of his presence bring true light once again into our hearts, the kind of light that only Christ can give.