During the season of Advent we await the celebration of Jesus Christ’s birth and His coming again at the end of time. Our culture, in fact, seems to erase Advent, which is a penitential season for reflection, as the Christmas season seems to begin earlier and earlier each year. Advent occurs over four weeks as we prepare our hearts for Christmas. The Third Sunday of Advent is also known as Gaudete Sunday showing the nearness of the coming of Christ. The word “gaudete” is derived from the Latin words “Gaudium,”or “joy,” and “gaudeo,” or “to rejoice or to be glad.” In reality, the term “Gaudete” is taken from the Entrance Antiphon of the Mass: “Rejoice in the Lord always: again, I say rejoice. Indeed the Lord is near” (Phil 4:4-5). Advent is a joyful expectation and great preparation for the Holy Day known as Christmas.
The season of Advent originated first as a fast of forty days in preparation for Christmas. Advent in a way still preserves most of the characteristics of a penitential season which makes it a kind of counterpart to Lent with the middle, or third, Sunday corresponding with Laetare or Mid-Lent Sunday. So, Gaudete Sunday is a breaker, like Laetare Sunday in Lent, about midway through a season which is otherwise a penitential season and signifies the nearness of the Lord’s coming. There are manty reasons for joy as we look forward to Christmas, but there is also great joy in recalling the birth of Jesus Christ more than 2000 years ago. The joy is heightened because he came to save us from sins (Mt 1:21). This same joy is extended to the anticipation of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ when all believers will be given the crown of righteousness (2 Tim4”8) and a place in our Father’s house (Jn 14:2) to live with God and his angels and saints forever.
Violet is the official liturgical color for the Season of Advent, but the color rose represents the joy and rejoicing which is the essence of Gaudete Sunday. Advent has a penitential tone to it, a time to be absolved of sin and to be in a state of grace. However, Gaudete Sunday gives us a brief respite to focus on the uplifting and joyful celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. So, the priest may wear a rose chasuble and the deacon may wear a rose dalmatic. Church decorations may include roses or other flowers, a rose-covered altar cloth and a rose covered drapery on the ambo. The third candle of the Advent wreath is lighted, which is rose in color. The prayers of the Mass are joyful. The immediacy of Christmas is explained in the first prayer, or the Collect, by the priest: “O God, who see how your people faithfully await the feast of the Lord’s Nativity,” followed by the explicit references to joy which “enables us to attain the joys of so great a salvation” and “to celebrate them with glad rejoicing.”
The Scriptures for that Sunday refer to this time of rejoicing. The first reading by Isaiah says that he was sent “to bring glad tidings” (Is 61:1), and that “my God is the joy of my soul” (Is 61:10). In the Responsorial Psalm the Blessed Mother prays, “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 1:47). In the second reading St. Paul insists that we should “rejoice always” (1 Thes5:16). In the Gospel is the joyful declaration of John the Baptist that he was sent by God to witness the light, the one who is coming after him, Jesus Christ (Jn 1:7,27). So, rejoice on this special, joyful Sunday as we await the great coming of Jesus at Christmas and at the end of time!
The Rev. Gus Puleo serves as director of the English as a Second Language (ESL) program and the Spanish Department at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia, where he also teaches English and Spanish. He is a graduate of Norristown High School and attended Georgetown University, where he received B.A. and B.S. in Spanish and linguistics. He has master’s degrees in Spanish, linguistics and divinity from Middlebury College, Georgetown University and St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. He holds a Ph.D. in Spanish from the University of Pennsylvania. He is the former pastor of St. Patrick Church in Norristown.
