Gaudete

This Sunday is the third Sunday (of four) of Advent -- the season of preparation for the celebration of Christmas. During the Advent season the colors of the priest's robes are purple or violet, a reminder of the need for repentance in order to receive God's gift of mercy. On the third Sunday, halfway through Advent, though, the color of the robes are softened and lightened to a rose, a sign that even before we are fully prepared, we begin to experience God's gift which brings light to us.

There is a similar change of color halfway through Lent. Both Advent and Lent Sundays have special names denoting this lightening of spirit, based on the scriptural text sung at the beginning of Mass on that Sunday. In Advent, it is called Gaudete Sunday, from the opening Latin version of Philippians 4:4-5 -- Gaudete in Domino semper: Rejoice in the Lord always.

I once attended Mass in Washington, DC on Gaudete and the priest appeared to be wearing a lovely, simple rose vestment. When time came for his homily, however, he pointed out that the church did not have a rose vestment. What he had done was take one of the purple vestments that had a rose lining and turned it inside out. It looked fine and fit the feast. He then went on to talk about how we often fail to discover what we need because we only look at things one way. When we turn things over or inside out or just walk around to the other side, we may find something wonderful has been there all along. It was just our failure to look that made us miss it.

He went on to talk about how easy it was for people not to see the meaning of Mary's pregnancy or the meaning of the child she bore or the meaning of the revelation of God that he brought.

But it applies to so many things in my daily life: when I only look at people, situations and things one way, I fail to see the whole picture -- and may miss the most important part of all!