The message of today's Gospel and this Gaudete Sunday is Rejoice.
Rejoice for the coming of our Savior is near, at hand.
The Lenten observance, this penitential rather observance of Advent,
and sometimes in the Middle Ages it was called also Lent,
but this penitential observance is mitigated for today.
Today we have some flowers,
which is generally permitted on Gaudete Sunday,
and the rose-colored candle is lit,
and the priest wears rose vestments
because there's a little bit more joy in the celebration today
because Our Lady is with child, heavy with child,
and just in a few days she will be delivered,
and Our Lord will be in our midst,
and Our Lady will adore the Christ child,
and in her spirit we hope to experience that same joy.
And that's really what we're doing right now in Advent.
You know, the Church gives us this day to mitigate the penitential observance,
to encourage us and to remind us that even though the observance is penitential,
it's meant to be joyful.
It's meant to be a cause of hope
and near expectation.
Just as when we come to the altar for the Holy Sacrifice,
before we do anything else we repent of our sins
and ask for the mercy of God.
And that is always the beginning of our experience of the presence of God.
It's always the beginning of our experience of the presence of God.
It's always the beginning of our experience of the presence of God. It's always the beginning of our experience of the presence of God. It's always the beginning of Our Presence of God. It's always the beginning of Our Presence of God. It's always the beginning of Our Presence of God. It's always the beginning of Our Presence of God. It's always the beginning of Our Presence of God. It's always the beginning of Our Presence of God. It's always the beginning of Our Presence of God. It's always the beginning
the beginning of our experience of growing in the spiritual life.
It's at the heart of what it means to come into contact with God's grace
and through His grace to bring about forgiveness among our sins
and unity within the church.
It's an act of humility, an act of faith.
It's a recognition that without God we can do nothing.
And on the other hand, however, that with His grace all things are possible.
As the angel Gabriel promised our Blessed Lady
before she consented to the mystery of the Incarnation,
all things are possible with God.
Even it's possible to have a virgin become a mother.
In that sense, Our Lady was the weakest of all.
Not in a moral sense, of course, because she's immaculate,
but in the sense that no miracle ever like the virginal conception had happened before
and nothing like it has ever happened again.
And Our Lady was completely helpless to become a mother,
but in her act of faith and humility and obedience,
not only did she become a mother, but salvation came into the world
and grace to each and every one of us personally has come into the world because of her,
her faith, her obedience, her humility,
and her ability to rejoice in the mystery of God's presence
in this very miraculous way.
You know, Our Lady manifested this great faith at the beginning, at the Annunciation,
when she consented to God's plan without explanation,
and she manifested that faith and obedience at the foot of the cross
when she saw that all of us could be saved.
All of God's promises that her son would be a king,
whose kingdom would have no end,
were, from a human point of view, coming to naught.
And even then, she believed and had faith
and entered into the mystery and the presence of God,
even in this very sorrowful moment of the cross.
And so, we should always remember that
we are in a time of God's grace.
We are right now in the mystery of Christmas.
Every Mass is a little Christmas.
You know, I've been preaching during Advent that
the Church gives us these penitential seasons
to remind us that this is the way life is.
Every moment is a preparation for God's grace,
whether it's a preparation
for the Eucharist,
or preparation for the coming of Jesus.
You know, it's a preparation for the Eucharist,
whether it's preparation for going to confession,
or the kinds of things that we need to do
to bring forgiveness into our families or around us,
or whether it's preparation for Christmas
with the solemn preparation that we have during Advent,
or our Lord's second coming at the end of life.
That's the way it is.
You know, every day is that grace
that we try to recognize the visitation of the Lord.
And so, what we're trying to do is dispose our hearts
so that when our Lord comes,
we will recognize the moment of His coming,
and we will accept that grace and embrace it,
benefit from it,
go closer to the Lord,
enter more fully into communion with Him.
And the fact that there is the observance
of this very limited time during Advent,
and that we actually count the days,
you know, the Advent wreath is like a clock,
is not only that it's such a great grace,
as Chesterton said,
Christmas is too good to be true,
except for that it is true.
It's not just because it's such a tremendous grace
and we anticipate,
like kids can't sleep at night on Christmas Eve,
because they anticipate the morning after.
It's also that we know that this time is limited,
and that this is the opportunity,
this is the acceptable time,
and the clock is running out.
The clock is running out.
And so this is like going to the school of life
where, you know, when we were in our classrooms,
and some still are,
we watched the clock,
and that was a bad thing, you know,
we got in trouble for watching the clock.
In this class, that's the whole point,
is to watch the clock,
and recognize that our time is limited,
and that we need to use it
as best we can,
the moment that we have now.
And that's really the teaching of the saints,
and that was the secret of the saints.
That was their secret.
You know, we get distracted
from the things that are really important.
You know, even Christmas can be such a distraction
with all the things that we have to do.
And I'm not saying all of that is bad,
but sometimes, you know, the content,
the real content of Christmas has been stripped out,
and all that's left is the tinsel
and the flashing lights,
and people forget why the tinsel
and the flashing lights are there
in the first place.
This is such a great moment,
and it may be the only moment that we have,
and we should use it to the best of our ability.
And that's what the saints did.
You know, they focused
on the things that were most important.
And even, you know, even if they were great sinners
like Saint Augustine in their past life,
they entrusted their past to the mercy of God
and knew that he would take care
of the mistakes that they had made during their life,
and that at this point,
there was nothing they could do about it
except to renew their sorrow,
which didn't necessarily need to be an emotional sorrow,
but this firm resolution to go forward,
to make the moments that we have left
as perfect as we can,
as pleasing to God as we can.
They also, but that didn't mean
that they worried about the future either.
They entrusted the future to the providence of God.
I sometimes reflect, you know,
on people who talk about, you know,
knowing the future and the psychics
who can, you know, figure out
what's going to happen tomorrow,
and that's really quite impossible.
I mean, it's metaphysically impossible
because the future doesn't exist.
There is no future.
The future is just an abstract concept
we have in our mind about the days that will come.
It doesn't exist now.
It doesn't exist until it gets here.
It's nothing.
The future is nothing
because it hasn't come.
We have no memory of it because it's not the past.
It's something forward
that hasn't gotten here yet.
The angels can guess it, you know,
better than we can,
and God can reveal it to his saints,
but there's nothing to know about it.
And we spend a lot of time
wasting our lives away and fretting it
because of our own limited
and weak understanding of things.
And so the future also we must entrust
to the providence of God.
And I'm not saying that we be irresponsible
and not go off and spend the day
the money that we don't have
and then not be able to pay our bills, for example.
But what we do know,
is that this moment is ours.
And this is something that we have,
so to speak,
in our hands
that we can give to God.
And that was the practice of the saints,
like Saint Maximilian,
who quoted the fathers of the church,
their maxim,
adje quod agis,
which means,
do what you are doing.
And that's precisely the idea
that we focus on what we're supposed to be doing now
and what we're supposed to be doing now
and do it to the best of our ability
and lift that up to God,
consecrate that to God,
give it to our Blessed Mother
through our consecration to her
and lift that up.
And that's where we should be focused.
And that's what Advent helps us to do.
We are looking, yes, to the future,
to the coming of the Lord at Christmastime,
but in reality,
that coming is also
now.
Because His grace is always with us
and because the Eucharist is always available to us
and because His second coming
for us,
whether it be the end of our lives
or at the end of the world,
is unknown.
You know,
we are told to keep watch,
to keep watch,
and to,
for we know not the hour
of the Lord's coming.
We can take an example from
Saint John the Baptist,
and his humility
as he was preparing for the coming of the Lord.
We always preach on Saint John the Baptist during Advent
even though our Lord,
even though Saint John did not preach
before Christmas.
He was only a baby
at Christmastime,
the first Christmas.
He preached before our Lord's public ministry.
However,
it's the same idea,
it's the same spirit,
and he preached
about the coming of the Lord
and his message was to be ready
and to enter into a spirit of penance.
His baptism and his preaching
were all about
the spirit of penance.
And he gave the example in today's Gospel,
if not by explicitly expressing his sorrow for his sins,
he did express it by his willingness
to allow the Lord to increase
and himself to decrease.
He had no interest
in his own agenda.
He had no personal agenda.
He had no interest in
what people thought about him
or about his own image
or his standing among the people.
In fact,
he was given every opportunity
to lift himself up,
lift himself up a little bit
and give himself a greater status
because they actually thought
that he might be the Christ
or Elijah returned
or one of the prophets.
And the Scriptures say
when they asked him who he was,
it says,
he admitted and did not deny it
but admitted,
I am not the Christ.
And in the Greek,
what is reflected here
by saying he admitted that he was not
but denied it
and then saying he admitted it again,
is that he was extremely emphatic.
He made it plainly clear
at the outset
so that they could not mistake his words
that he was not the Christ
and that he wasn't pointing to himself
but he was pointing to someone else.
And that's the way our lives should be.
Our lives should always point to the Lord
and we should be his witnesses.
And that begins by recognizing
how much we are in need
of God's forgiveness
and how much we are dependent
upon his grace.
Because without his grace,
it is true,
we are fundamentally helpless.
As even our Blessed Lady was helpless
without God's grace.
Helpless in particular
to become his mother
without this miracle.
And yet with God's grace,
all things are possible.
But the fundamental attitude,
preparation or disposition
is an act of humility.
Is a willingness to do penance
and to open ourselves completely up
to the grace of God.
That should be our joy.
Because at each and every moment of our life,
no matter what is happening
or no matter what difficulties
we face,
no matter what we carry in our past
or what the future holds in store,
this moment is something that God has given us
to lift up to him.
And every one of us,
no matter who we are
or what is in the past
or what is in the future
or what burdens we carry,
every single one of us
has the ability to do this.
And that's really,
in the end,
all God wants.
It's everything in one sense.
And yet it's all within our grasp.
Each and every one of us
have the ability to do this.
No matter who we are
or how old or young we are,
we all have the ability
to give God the best that we have
at this moment.
And if we do that,
then everything else will take care of itself.
Or rather,
our Lord and our Blessed Lady
will take care of it for us.
So let us then rejoice
in the presence of the Lord
and in the anticipation
of our Blessed Mother
who is God's first tabernacle
and the one who brings us His grace
at each and every moment.
Let us humble ourselves with her
and ask her to keep us always
in the presence of Jesus
and under the patronage
of her Immaculate Heart.
So they will never have to
pierce us again.
And over and over again
they'll rock them to supper.
How noble are the guy
that sẽ completely
subjugate the Holy One
because he only wants
to honvy himself
into the Law of the Universes.