Gaudete Sunday - the third Sunday of Advent. In addition to marking the midpoint of the season, the day signifies the joy the world experienced at the nearness of the Lord's coming. Above all else, it is a day for rejoicing. It is no accident that the candle symbolizing this Advent Sunday differs from the others in color. All four Sundays are important, but this one is especially significant. It is meant to stand out from the others. It is meant to be uncommon.
When I contemplate the birth of Jesus, I am inevitably struck by the uncommon Goodness of the event - in both the "singular" and "wonderful" senses of the word. On the surface the birth itself was common. Jesus came into the world in the same way countless other infants before Him had. Yet Jesus's appearance in the world signaled the beginning of an incomparable cosmic shift - an unparalleled movement in the minds and hearts of men. Gaudete Sunday is a joyful celebration of this cosmic shift -this unparalleled movement.
The arrival of Jesus on earth proclaims the potential for an authentic common Good via uncommon means that at once embrace and transcend all conventional notions of the common good. The Good that Jesus brought into the world was uncommon in every sense of the word. It was at once unconventional, uncustomary, unheard of, unorthodox as well as strange, startling, singular, and special.
It is Gaudete Sunday, the midpoint of the Advent season, and while the world remains fixated and possessed by deceitful and, ultimately, destructive impulses toward the establishment of a "common good", we the faithful should instead rejoice in the Good that is uncommon - the uncommon Good of the coming of Jesus, but also in the presence of this uncommon Good within ourselves and our surroundings, whenever and wherever we are fortunate enough to perceive it.
When I contemplate the birth of Jesus, I am inevitably struck by the uncommon Goodness of the event - in both the "singular" and "wonderful" senses of the word. On the surface the birth itself was common. Jesus came into the world in the same way countless other infants before Him had. Yet Jesus's appearance in the world signaled the beginning of an incomparable cosmic shift - an unparalleled movement in the minds and hearts of men. Gaudete Sunday is a joyful celebration of this cosmic shift -this unparalleled movement.
The arrival of Jesus on earth proclaims the potential for an authentic common Good via uncommon means that at once embrace and transcend all conventional notions of the common good. The Good that Jesus brought into the world was uncommon in every sense of the word. It was at once unconventional, uncustomary, unheard of, unorthodox as well as strange, startling, singular, and special.
It is Gaudete Sunday, the midpoint of the Advent season, and while the world remains fixated and possessed by deceitful and, ultimately, destructive impulses toward the establishment of a "common good", we the faithful should instead rejoice in the Good that is uncommon - the uncommon Good of the coming of Jesus, but also in the presence of this uncommon Good within ourselves and our surroundings, whenever and wherever we are fortunate enough to perceive it.
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