Greetings,

 

Recently, over Thanksgiving break, we received a visit from a few Jehovah’s Witnesses. In our brief conversation, they mentioned their desire to spread a message of hope because our world is so broken. That statement stayed with me. It made me reflect on the kind of hope we, as Catholics, already possess. Our hope is not an idea, a feeling, or an optimistic mindset, but rather a person. Our hope is Jesus Christ. But that naturally leads one to a deeper examination. If Christ Himself is our hope, am I truly living as someone who believes that? Am I rejoicing in the hope that He brings?

 

Today, the Church celebrates Gaudete Sunday. The word Gaudete means “Rejoice,” and it marks a shift in our Advent journey. During the first two weeks of Advent, the Church invites us to look forward to the Second Coming of Christ, to prepare our hearts for the day He will return in glory. It is a period that confronts us with the reality of judgment, and repentance.

 

But then, right in the middle of this penitential season, the liturgy tells us to rejoice. The pink candle is lit and the readings shift in tone. Something changes. Why? Because Gaudete Sunday is the moment when our gaze turns from Christ’s future coming in glory toward His coming as a child in Bethlehem. From the mighty Judge to the humble Savior.

 

This doesn’t undo the penitential nature of Advent, but rather, it gives it meaning. Advent calls us to repentance because repentance is precisely what opens our hearts to Christ’s love. Penitence is not meant to crush us; it is meant to free us. It is the clearing away of the rubble so that hope can take root.

 

So why rejoice in the middle of repentance? Because true repentance is inseparable from mercy. We rejoice not in our sins, but in God’s response to them. When we turn back to the Lord, we do not encounter condemnation; we encounter compassion. We meet a God who longs to heal more than we long to be healed, who desires to forgive even more than we desire forgiveness.

 

Without this awareness, repentance can become terrifying. Without mercy, we are left only with our failures. And when we focus only on our failures, despair creeps in. This, I believe, is why so many people in the world feel hopeless. It is not because the world is more broken than before, but because they have forgotten, or have never known, the depths of the Lord’s mercy.

 

Gaudete Sunday rejects that despair. It tells us that Christ is near, closer than our sins, closer than our fear, closer than our brokenness. We rejoice because the Lord who comes is not coming to condemn us, but to save us. We rejoice because the God who asks us to prepare a place for Him does not wait until we are perfect; He comes precisely to make us whole.

 

So let us ask for a deep and true repentance that we might savor the mercy he bestows upon us and rejoice in the hope of his coming.

 

Peace and Love of Christ,

Nicholas Daubner, Seminarian