The Words of Advent: Joy

Yesterday we celebrated Gaudete Sunday, and the Church implored us to rejoice. That's what gaudete means. It's the infinitive, the command form, of the Latin verb gaudeo, “to rejoice.”

We hear over and over in Scripture that we must rejoice. “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus,” says Paul to the Thessalonians (1 Thess 5:16-18). “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice,” the same saint calls to Philemon (Phil 4:4). “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer,” he urges the Romans (Rom 12:12). “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad,” the psalmist sings out (Psalm 118:24).

The saints echo the Bible's invitation to joy. “Joy is prayer; joy is strength; joy is love; joy is a net of love by which we catch souls,” explains St. Teresa of Calcutta. “You will never be happy if your happiness depends on getting solely what you want. Change the focus. Get a new center. Will what God wills, and your joy no man shall take from you,” Venerable Fulton Sheen instructs.

“Prayer is nothing else than union with God. When our heart is pure and united to God, we feel within ourselves a joy, a sweetness that inebriates, a light that dazzles us. In this intimate union God and the soul are like two pieces of wax melted together; they cannot be separated. This union of God with His little creature is a most beautiful thing. It is a happiness that we cannot understand...God, in His goodness, has permitted us to speak to Him. Our prayer is an incense which He receives with extreme pleasure,” writes St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney.

“The Divine Heart is an ocean full of all good things, wherein poor souls can cast all their needs; it is an ocean full of joy to drown all our sadness, an ocean of humility to drown our folly, an ocean of mercy to those in distress, an ocean of love in which to submerge our poverty,” St. Margaret Mary declares.

“There is a joy which is not given to the ungodly, but to those who love Thee for Thine own sake, whose joy Thou Thyself art. And this is the happy life, to rejoice to Thee, of Thee, for Thee; this it is, and there is no other,” asserts St. Augustine.

Joy, then, is far more than an emotion. It is an experience deep within our hearts and souls that comes through an encounter with God. We experience joy when we are touched by truth, beauty, and goodness, when we are touched by God, sometimes directly, sometimes through earthly things that point to Him. When the Church tells us to rejoice, she is inviting us to come close to Christ, to recognize Him in all His glory, and to let Him fill us with joy.