ADVENT—GAUDETE SUNDAY

Gaudete Sunday is the third Sunday in Advent, the time that begins a new liturgical year, and the season when we await the celebration of the birth of Christ on Christmas. Like Lent, the weeks in Advent represent a penitential season—a time of prayer and fasting. Originally, the season of Advent was 40 days long, just as our Lenten penitential season. During the ninth century, that was changed to the familiar four weeks.

During mass on three of the Sundays in Advent, the priest wears purple. (Correspondingly, we use three purple candles on our advent wreaths.) Then, on Gaudete Sunday, we shift the focus to “rejoicing”—which is what “gaudete” means. On the altar we can find joy represented in flowers, and the priestly garb is in the color “rose”, rather than the more solemn “purple”.

The joy and gladness is a celebration of the fact that, not only is the Lord [eventually] coming (both at “Christmas”, and in the second coming of Christ), but that the time is near, and He is “close at hand”. His coming is “near”, and, as the Gospel indicates through John the Baptist, He is even now in our midst. We are exhorted to “Rejoice in the Lord always. I say it again: Rejoice!” (Phillipians 4:4). The Lord is near—dwelling within our hearts as we invite Him in; dwelling within our midst in our communities that love and honor His kingdom come; and seasonally reminding us that the “babe” who humbled Himself to be born in a manger will “soon” come again for His watchful, waiting bride.