A Mid-Advent "Gaudete (Rejoice) Sunday" Reflection

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“It is the beautiful task of Advent to awaken in all of us memories of goodness and thus to open doors of hope.”

– Pope Benedict XVI

Memories have a way of opening doors within us; some doors we close immediately!  Some memory doors we open with joy, eagerness, and sometimes with reverence. Most of these latter doors – the ones we want to open & not linger on their threshold, seem to invite us to re-enter fully into the room of that memory.  Behind those doors we probably experienced sheer goodness in some form or other.

As you reflect on these past two weeks of Advent, how have you awakened memories of goodness and opened doors of hope for yourself and others?  Where have you experienced closed doors where you had expected and/or wanted to find open ones?

Is not that entire experience of doors closing and opening something like what Mary and Joseph experienced on their arrival in Bethlehem, a place they were required to visit?  Yes, and their main reason for being in Bethlehem was to satisfy the census-taking edict from the powers that were.

Regardless of the motive for that trek to Bethlehem, the reason (as base as it might have been), did not prevent the birth of Jesus; the motive did not cancel the coming of the Holy One into their situation!

What is the “take-away” for you today?  Can you move forward into Advent, into life, becoming more and more aware of the presence of the Holy One in your midst because:

  • No matter what motive has created your situation

  • No matter how you resist the situation where you find yourself

  • No matter how you find yourself in the midst of world chaos, or your own chaos of doors closing and opening

  • No matter what . . .

you can be assured that Goodness, Holy Goodness, can be found there.

So, on this 3rd Advent Sunday (Rejoice Sunday), let us continue the “beautiful task of Advent to awaken in all of us memories of goodness and thus to open doors of hope.”  Yes, we have hope and can rejoice because the Holy One is here!  And that is a great reason to Rejoice!   - Jackie F.