Gaudete Sunday!

Rejoice!

Today the Church rejoices in the Advent Season on this particular Sunday—Gaudete Sunday—when our faith is called to be reenergized with a specific joy as we see the coming of the birth of Christ in just two short weeks. This joy springs from our recognition that the Incarnate God has come into our lives, which we celebrate on the 25th of December, to change the meaning of life forever. Now, life means to be in friendship with God. Today we learn more closely what that friendship entails.

We also see some physical changes in the Church today. The color of Advent—purple—changes to Rose or pink—and is noted in the color of the vestments worn by the priest (and thanks to the memory of Ella Wulf, mother of Kate McHale), the vest-ments I wear today (are a gift of Kate in memory of her mother) are Rose. Also the color of the third candle in the Advent Wreath is Rose, as is the bow on the third wreath of Advent hanging on the back wall of the sanctuary. You will also note a more joyful tenor of the music today as well as the placement of flowers in the sanctuary all permitted in this third week of Advent, Gaudete Sunday.

In Sacred Scripture today we hear that Christ indeed is living among us. This reminds me of the story of the monastery that was experiencing a dwindling of members monks were leaving the order and no new monk-candidates were entering. So the abbot went to a local hermit and asked him his advice and to see what he could do in this situation. The hermit told the abbot a secret: one of the monks living in the monastery was the Messiah, though he was living in such a way that no one would recognize him.

The abbot went back to the monastery and told this secret to the monks. Things changed immediately: the monks treated each other with great respect and dignity; the prayer life of the monastery became more sincere and fervent, and the commu-nity of monks began to grow in number. All of this happened be-cause a man of God pointed to the truth that Christ was indeed living among them.

Much like the holy hermit in the story, John the Baptist directs our eyes to the presence of Christ among us. In this Sun-day’s Gospel, the cousin of Jesus, John the Baptist, is the powerful figure who highlights that all the promises of the old covenant are now about to be fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. Even before he was born, John the Baptist leaped for joy in his mother’s womb as he recognized Jesus as the Messiah. This is not to say that John the Baptist knew what God’s plan was for him from the time he was in the womb. Rather, what this does mean is that John the Baptist knew that God had a plan for him—not the details of God’s plan—but that He had a divine purpose for John—a vocation in life. This divine purpose—his vocation—was to bring to life the words of the long-ago prophet Isaiah, "a voice that cries in the wilderness: Make a straight way for the Lord."

John recognized that Jesus the Messiah was already standing among His people that John would bear witness to Christ in his preaching, in his fearless truthfulness, and in his ministry of repentance and baptism. Christ among us!

And so our friendship with God begins. All of us can be like any of the people in the crowds that followed John the Bap-tist. We can choose to either be alert to the message of Christ that the Messiah is already present among us or we can choose to be blind to this saving presence. We can also be like the "interrogators" sent by the Pharisees loaded with questions but not really listening to the answers.

Today’s readings are full of joy and hope this Sunday of Advent. This joy and this hope are found in the fact that the prom-ises of God are being fulfilled before our very eyes, even as we listen today. The Lord calls on each one of us—you and me—to play our part in His unfolding plan of salvation. Our part may seem small. We may wonder just what is it that God is asking me to do. We may feel we cannot do much. What God is asking of us—each one of us—is to try to help each other to see and recog-nize Jesus standing among us. Last weekend we learned of many examples of "Christ among us"…

We see our Christ in the men and woman who volunteer their time and talents as medical professionals in the service of the Malta Mobile House of Care. Just as Christ healed the hemor-rhaging woman or gave sight to the blind or cleansed the leper—these Christ-like figures are comforting and healing our brothers and sisters.

We see Christ among us in the folks here at Saint Catherine of Siena who worry about and act to feed our Simsbury neighbors in need through Pantry Partners of St. Catherine—just as Christ fed the thousands with a few loaves and fishes.

And, we see Christ among us in the people in need…the hun-gry, the lonely, the sick and the forgotten… "for what you do for the least of my brothers and sisters, you do for me."

Seeing Christ among us—recognizing Him in others and being Him to others—is the

Good News, our joy and our hope, that we are privileged, like John the Baptist, to proclaim to others. This is the call of Advent…and every day. To recognize the Christ among us. God has called you, and He will not fail you. (If our hearts are open, the Word of God can transform us and we can set the world ablaze with His power and His hope; His Joy and His presence.