Waiting in Joyful Hope
Have you ever experienced the joyful expectation of being reunited with a friend or relative you haven’t seen for quite some time? For me, I experience this each time I know that I will have the opportunity to see me granddaughter. I experience it when I know that my older children will be coming for a visit or to stay for a few days. My children experience this joyful expectation when they know they’ll be seeing their cousins and grandparents, especially when they only see them a couple times of year.
Our entire family is experiencing this joyful expectation now as we await the return of our son Samuel. Samuel hasn’t been home since August because he’s a missionary with NET Ministries. We, his parents, are excited to hug him again and spend time with him. His siblings are planning out each moment to maximize the little time they’ll have with him (only two weeks).
If you have ever experienced that feeling of joyful expectation; waiting patiently impatiently, childlike Christmas Eve jitters because Santa is coming and you think you just heard sleigh bells – you have a fine example of what today is all about!
Rejoice!
The Church gives us Gaudete Sunday as a way of saying, “He’s almost here! Get ready. I think I hear him coming. I think I see Him on the horizon! Get ready, the time is near!“
Gaudete in Domino semper: iterum dico, gaudete.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice.
Rejoice because our waiting is almost over! Rejoice because the Lord is nigh! Rejoice because the long period of His absence is coming to an end and He will not leave us again! Rejoice you heavens and earth, the King returns!!
Yet, some may argue, He isn’t returning. This, Advent and Christmas, is simply a remembering of His birth. My joyful expectation has long since faded. In fact, I wonder if He’ll ever return… I wonder if He was ever here…
This sentiment, this feeling too, is part of our fallen human condition. We become tired of waiting, we become distracted by life, we experience pain and suffering and wonder what life is all about. We being to trust our feelings more than His word.
A Word from Your Mother
This too is the beauty of Gaudete Sunday. It is the Church, our loving mother, saying to us each and every year, “don’t lose hope, He will come! Stay strong in your faith! Continue to run the race. This annual remembrance of His first coming will help you prepare for His second. Stay awake, sober, and ready, He is near!” She encourages our hearts with these words handed down generation upon generation…
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. (Philippians 4:4)
For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief at night. But you, brothers, are not in darkness, for that day to overtake you like a thief. For all of you are children of the light and children of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober. Those who sleep go to sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet that is hope for salvation. (1 Thessalonians 5:2, 4-8)
Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
You need endurance to do the will of God and receive what he has promised. For, after just a brief moment, he who is to come shall come; he shall not delay. (Hebrews 10:36-37)
The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard “delay,” but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. Therefore, beloved, since you await these things, be eager to be found without spot or blemish before him, at peace. And consider the patience of our Lord as salvation… (2 Peter 3:9,14-15a)
The Lord will come! He will not delay. See His “delay” as His patience for the salvation of souls. Rejoice in this “delay” for it means your brothers and sisters too will be given the great gift of joyful expectation!
James M. Hahn, Author 