A Homily for the 3rd Sunday in Advent (B)
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say rejoice!” St. Paul exclaims to the Philippians in one of his letters, and we heard in today’s second reading that he also urged the Thessalonians to “Rejoice always!” Why does St. Paul spend so much time telling people to rejoice? Well, first of all no one wants to be around a grumpy person. However St. Paul goes further in his letter to the Philippians to give the basic reason for this profound happiness, “The Lord is at hand!”
We celebrate this profound and basic truth that the Lord is near, during this, the Third Sunday in Advent. The Church proclaims this to be “Gaudete Sunday” taking it from the Latin word for “Rejoice.” The Prophet Isaiah also tells us that he rejoices, and he too gives the reason for his rejoicing when he writes in our first reading, “in my God is the joy of my soul.” It seems pretty simple: the key to our happiness is centering our life on God and doing His will. Unhappiness comes from putting distance between God and us by our sins.
I recently stumbled across an email that I sent to my niece about a year ago. She had just turned 13, and like most teenagers relationships with friends and family had their ups and downs. It was also a time when I was being much more reflective. You see, I had just undergone my second surgery for thyroid cancer, so I really could not talk much and basically did little more than lay in my recliner thinking, praying and sleeping. Let me share with you some of that email that I sent to my niece.
“Human friendships cannot be the foundation, the root, of our happiness. Why? Because they change. As you know, people have good days and bad days. Sometimes we don’t always behave toward our friends the way we would like. We disappoint them, and they disappoint us. Very often it is not out of meanness that they disappoint us, perhaps even hurt us. The fact is as human beings we are limited, and we cannot read other people’s hearts. To make another human person the foundation for our happiness is too heavy a burden for the friendship; because of our limitations we can only fail to live up to it. In the worse case, they disappoint/hurt us, we retaliate by doing the same to them, they retaliate, etc. and it ends the friendship and both are sad, hurt and unhappy.
The foundation or root of our happiness must be in something that does not change, that is not limited, and that knows us better than we know ourselves. Scripture tells us that Christ Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever, and no one knows the deepest desires of our hearts better that Jesus. He will never stop loving us. If we make Jesus the foundation of our happiness, our joy, then even in difficult times, even when we feel alone there will still be, deep down inside us joy. Jesus’ friendship will endure any of the changing things of this world.
And, by making Jesus the foundation of our joy, our happiness, we can be better friends to our human friends. There will not be the burden of making them responsible for our happiness. When, due to their human weakness and limitation, they disappoint or hurt us we might do a better job at being patient and forgiving with them and skip the whole dance of “they hurt me so I am going to hurt them.” With that acceptance of their flaws hopefully, if they too root their joy/happiness in Christ, they will accept our imperfections better and our friendship can grow even closer. Without making them the burden of making them responsible for our happiness, there can be the freedom to become even better, closer friends and to experience happiness in that relationship. It is just another example of if we give all we have to Jesus, He will give us even more.”
With that, allow me to introduce myself. I am Fr. JC Garrett, and I rejoice in the fact that I am the new parochial vicar here at OLS-St. Anthony Parish. This really is a “home-coming” for me. My father and uncle graduated from St. Anthony’s. I was baptized in St. Anthony’s over 40 years ago. I attended McCorristin HS. My aunt and uncle, with their three kids, belonged to OLS. I even went to next door for my pediatrician.
I am a pretty new priest; only ordained a priest for a little over a year and a half, having served at St. James in Red Bank. I feel very blessed that Bishop Smith decided to move me closer to my parents since my father has terminal cancer, and I truly rejoiced when I heard that I would be coming here. I pray that I will serve you well as your priest, and that together we can walk a bit more holier with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I say it again, Rejoice!
