Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, founder of Mary's Meals, is seen in a 2022 photograph serving school meals to Jacaranda Primary and Secondary School in Malawi. OSV News photo/Graeme Little's Kenya Trip Photos, courtesy Mary's Meals
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Zep 3:14-18a
Is 12:2-3, 4, 5-6
Phil 4:4-7
Lk 3:10-18
The point is summed up in what Josef Pieper wrote once, that "we are not the forgers of our own felicity."
Of course, he wasn't at all the only one to say something like this, such has always been true. Real joy is not anything we make on our own but can only receive. Those who understand this find real happiness while those who don't find it -- after what they thought would make them happy fades away -- find only real emptiness. Again, as I said, this has always been true. It's like an eternal law.
And it's the truth of Gaudete Sunday, the truth of Advent and Christmas, this truth of the universe. As Paul wrote to the Philippians, "Rejoice in the Lord, always. I shall say it again: rejoice!" Why? Because: "The Lord is near" (Phil 4:4-5)!
None of this is esoteric, none of it the reward of any method or mindset. It is simply what happens to the person who has found Christ.
Which is why the church reminds us of this eternal truth each year during Advent. Because this is the season we celebrate mystically what is every day, at least since the incarnation, now true: that the Lord is near, made flesh and dwelling among us. This -- the motherly Church never tires of whispering to us -- is the only source of our joy, the only way of happiness: that the Way himself made his way to us and that all we need do is open our eyes to find all the many Bethlehems where he's born.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux preached this time of year on the three "advents" of Christ -- at Bethlehem, in the church in the sacraments and at the end of time. Because it's an image so rich, many a preacher and writer (me included) for many years have drawn on the three advents of Christ to help people understand how what we anticipate and celebrate is more than the mere celebration of some past event but an unveiling of reality -- an apocalypse, so to speak, of Christ's real presence in the world now. Which, as I've already said, is the cause of real joy, that the Lord is near. This is why the angels woke up the shepherds with song (Lk 2:13-14).
We find this Christ in the church, of course, in the sacrament of the altar and among the sisters and brothers of the body of Christ. We hear this song in the liturgy, even in the humblest singing of "Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus." We find this Christ in those mystical moments when like John we look up from worship and suffering to see what is taking place (Rv 1:9-11). What I'm saying here is that to discover Christ is first a mystical experience, a thing at first liturgical and sacramental, a matter of prayer.
But that isn't all. While on this earth, as strange as it sounds, we must also find Christ in pieces. We find him not just in the sacraments of the church, those mystical pieces of the same Christ, but also in the world -- especially among the poor, the vulnerable, the difficult. That is, we must also find Christ among those whom we know we should serve, the lowly more than the good and the great.
And here we come to the question posed to John the Baptist. Now we see why this passage from Luke is appropriate for Gaudete Sunday. "What should we do?" the crowd asks him (Lk 3:10-14). Share, don't lie, don't cheat, be satisfied with what you have.
Another way to put it: Make yourself the sort of person that is good for others, a servant who is kind, honest and humble. That is what a person transformed by the coming of Jesus Christ looks like. He or she looks like a servant; another word for it is Christian.
Which, as I said, is the contrast, the choice to be made between true happiness born of giving and false happiness born of taking. One path leads to joy that is pure and eternal. The other path leads to emptiness and torment, crushing many of God's poor ones along the way. Which is why the torment will be just, why the wrath of it will be holy. This too is a theme of Advent, this clear warning only foolishly ignored.
But it is the trusted servant who will hear the invitation to enter the master's joy (Mt 25:23). Such will be the one who was faithful in small things, not just large ones. Such will be the one who receives the Father's inheritance: the servant who served the least of the Lord's sisters and brothers (Mt 25:40). This is the path of real joy.
Which finally makes clear the deeper truths of Gaudete Sunday: that joy comes from finding Christ mystically in the church and in those we must serve, and that is a joy that while found on earth, endures in heaven.