2024 Sun Dec 15

Explore Advent, Part 3 – Over the Sundays in Advent there will be a presentation each week focusing on that week’s scriptures, art and commentary and how they demonstrate the themes of advent. Let’s continue with Advent 3.

This candle reflects the joy that comes through Jesus’ arrival, and through the salvation he has gifted us. During this third week of advent, this Sunday celebrates the passage Philippians 4:4-5, its verses extolling readers to “rejoice” for “indeed the Lord is near.” This Sunday is traditionally known as “Gaudete” or “Rejoice” Sunday, so called because of the heightened excitement in anticipation for the birth of Christ

During a time where depression is at an all-time high and people seem to be in the most despair, this candle offers a bright light during a dark time.

It is also known as the Shepherd Candle to highlight the joy the shepherds experienced when they received the good news about Christ’s birth (Luke 2:8-20). During the middle of the night, the darkest time, the shepherds encountered angels.

The third candle of Advent has an unusual place. In most advent wreaths, it is the one candle that is a different color, pink, than the others. There is something unique, more spontaneous, and celebratory about the theme of the third week of Advent compared to the others.

In contrast to purple, pink or rose represents joy and celebration. One of the ancient church’s popes gave a citizen a pink rose on the third Sunday of Lent, symbolizing the moment of joy amidst Lent’s fasting and penance. Therefore, when Catholic priests modeled Advent celebrations on Lent, they wore rose-colored robes and set the third Sunday of December as the time to remember joy. The pink or rose-colored advent candle is lit on that third Sunday.

It’s also worth noting that more so than the other three Advent themes, joy is something we associate with spontaneous action. Hope, peace, joy, and love are all things that God places in us and should be ongoing attitudes in our lives. However, hope and peace are generally seen as inner qualities that we cultivate by meditating on ideas like God’s provision. Love is something we do, but also something we cultivate and meditate on.

Joy tends to have a more spontaneous effect. Joy can motivate us to celebrate or worship with glorious abandon (like David did when he danced in front of the ark of the covenant). In that light, it’s appropriate that the advent candle representing joy is a different color, highlighting the different nature of joy compared to the other advent themes.

The third Sunday of Advent is known as “Gaudete Sunday.” The day takes its common name from the Latin word Gaudete (“Rejoice”). Its name is taken from the entrance antiphon of the Mass, which is: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near. This is a quotation from Philippians 4:4-5, and in Latin, the first word of the antiphon is “gaudete”. We are most of the way through the season, closer to Christ’s birth and so that is the emphasis rather than coming again.

We light the rose colored candle in addition to the other 2 violet ones. Purple is a penitential color of fasting while pink (rose) is the color of joy. Long ago the Pope would honor a citizen with a pink rose (or a rose) Priests then would wear pink vestments as a reminder of this coming joy. Rose is also used during Laetare Sunday (the fourth Sunday of lent) to symbolize a similar expectation of the coming joy of Christ’s coming in Easter. The third Sunday of Advent is rose (pink) because pink symbolizes joy, the joy that Jesus is almost here. Adult Christian Ed discussed “Rejoice! What promises of God give you cause to rejoice?”

Theologian Henri Nouwen described the difference between joy and happiness. While happiness is dependent on external conditions, joy is “the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing — sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death — can take that love away.” Thus joy can be present even in the midst of sadness. Jesus reveals to us God’s love so that his joy may become ours and that our joy may become complete. As Nouwen says, “Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day.”

This is break from some of the penitential readings earlier in Advent. How will you express joy this week? Consider the good things that have been given to you.

Besides the emphasis in joy, this is also “Stir up Sunday!” The collect has the words, ” Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins”. Let’s change the “our sins” to “missing the mark.” How can we hit the mark ? One way is to advantage of our opportunities.

The video and prayer for the Third Week of Advent, Cycle C, is based on Luke 3:10–18. The art is Domenico Ghirlandaio’s Preaching of St. John the Baptist.

Domenico Ghirlandaio’s fresco of John the Baptist preaching is one of a series he created for the Tornabuoni Chapel of Florence’s Santa Maria Novella Church. In this scene, we meet John the Baptist preaching to the crowds, standing on a rock and holding a cross staff with one hand, while instructing with his other. As he turns his attention to the people on the right of the scene, we can imagine him articulating the admonitions listed in Luke’s Gospel in response to the question, “Teacher, what should we do?” In his teaching to share goods justly and avoid extortion and excessive taxing, John is preparing the way for the Lord.

As John prepares the way by his preaching, Christ appears on the top left, heading down a path toward the crowd. Not one person notices him. At the moment, the focus is still on John’s preparatory role, on his preaching ministry that prepares the expectant hearts of the crowd for the advent of the Lord. Christ’s downcast gaze and crossed hands in contrast with John’s more active expression and hand gestures also underscore the focus of the moment.

To the left of the scene we meet a gathering of women, a feature characteristic of Ghirlandaio’s work. They too are engaged in listening to John. Two of them are pictured from the back, one standing and one seated at the foot of the rock on which John stands. The seated woman is especially evocative; her body is turned and directed toward John, even as a child at the foot of the prophet reaches out to get her attention. This detail alludes to conversion away from the pagan classical world that the child represents to the anticipation of the Gospel heralded by John. Seeing the woman’s back, the viewer is called to follow her example and to find oneself in her company in the crowd surrounding John.

In the midst of the elegant and colorful crowd, John the Baptist stands on a rock in his camelhair shirt and preaches the coming of Christ. His words call us to turn too, make way for the Lord, and let our hearts be filled with joyful expectation as he nears.