Joy With Its Feet on the Ground

Advent has a way of telling the truth. The season of Advent begins with an honest look at what we have been carrying quietly, stubbornly and sometimes without realizing how heavy it has become. That's what makes the joy of this Sunday (Rose Sunday or Gaudete Sunday) so surprising and necessary.

The Third Sunday of Advent brings us to the rose or pink candle in the Advent wreath and also to a word that can feel a bit risky: Rejoice!

Sometimes the word rejoice can feel easier to read than to actually do in our lives. After all, life hasn't slowed down, the world still feels tense, and many people carry real fear about the future. Fear for our families, neighbors, and the kind of society we are becoming. So, if "rejoicing" feels a bit out of reach for you this week, you are not alone.

The good news is that the readings this Sunday don't ask us to pretend otherwise.

Isaiah speaks hope into a world that had so many reasons to be weary. The vision he speaks of is bold: strength returning, fear loosening its grip, and a way opening where there wasn't one before. He is stating a promise. The promise that God is not finished with what looks dry and damaged. And, while Isaiah offers us a broad perspective, our Gospel brings that promised hope into a single human voice.

In the Gospel, we meet a faithful voice asking an honest question from a very difficult space. This fact alone should help steady us since it shows that God makes room for our questions. It also shows that sometimes the most faithful thing we can do is speak truthfully to God. As if that is not enough the Gospel then points us to the hope you can actually see in Mary's song.

God lifts up the lowly.
God feeds the hungry.
God unsettles the arrogance of power.

She describes the God who turns the world right-side up. Which means Advent joy is not only a feeling we chase. It’s a reality we learn to notice. So joy begins to take shape in places like these:

Where dignity is restored.
Where mercy breaks through.
Where weary people find strength again.
Where the vulnerable are protected rather than used.

This is the rejoicing that this Sunday invites us into. So maybe we shouldn't ask ourselves, "Do I feel Joyful?" Maybe we should ask something actually simpler:

Where do I see God refusing to give up on people, and how can I be a part of that answer?

Christ is coming. And part of our preparation is learning to live as though Mary's song is true, no just in our prayers, but in our choices.