A Reflection on the Third Week of Advent: Gaudete Sunday

By Dr. Kathy Coffey-Guenther, senior advancement officer for alumni spirituality

Rejoice!

Gaudete Sunday, otherwise known as the Third Sunday of Advent, brings an awaited invitation to rejoice, to allow the still, quiet and present waiting that we have enjoyed during these days of Advent to finally give way to an anticipatory joy!

Why joy, you may ask?

Well, the birth of the baby Jesus is just around the corner!  In other words, the birth of hope, light, new life and new love is soon to arrive!  A joyous occasion indeed!

Think back in your own life about the precious face of a child that you have loved.  Think about your eager anticipation for their arrival, whether through their birth, or adoption, or caretaking.  Remember the preparations that you went through- ensuring that there was adequate food and clothing, formula, milk and diapers, a crib or bed to sleep in, and toys and medicine and schedules to be kept.  Perhaps there were showers and parties in which your family and friends also began to welcome this new child in love and community, even before they ever met.

 
Perhaps you can recall your own story of a loved child’s birth.  Those weeks and months before, there is much to do and learn and think about as one prepares to bring this tender new life home.  Lots of busy days of nesting and shopping and dreaming… But in those last days and weeks before a child’s birth and arrival, most of us are pre-occupied with the when and the how, the anticipation and sometimes even anxiety, about how this child will come into this world, into this family, and into his/her own beingness. 
 

We may have all the details mapped out perfectly in our birth plans and adoption agreements, and yet, this birthing is a co-creative event between the child, the Creator God who first imagines this life, and us. 

Our “yes” to this new life, much like Mary’s response to the Angel Gabriel’s invitation, allows the space for this new life to take their place as part of God’s great family as well, just as they are, loved as they are.

And so it is with our coming to new life!  Sometimes the very invitation to this kind of love and life brings so much awe it is hard to find our own “yes”.  

However, if we continue along the pathway bringing us closer and closer to true love and acceptance and forgiveness and redemption, we come to know the joy and freedom that God offers through the birth of his precious son, Jesus.  We come to know that God’s deepest hope is that we will eliminate any walls and blocks within us that could separate us from the love of God.  God sent Jesus to help us to embrace the joy of God’s love for us, with exuberance and freedom and enthusiasm and, yes, with Joy!

Rejoice!  And welcome precious life!