Psalm Reflection: The Third Sunday of Advent "Gaudete Sunday" - Cycle C

“Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.” - Isaiah 12:2-6

As I sat down in my office to write this reflection, I was drawing a blank. I had a stressful week and felt like I was playing catch up. My mind was going in a hundred different directions and I had just had a pretty intense therapy session, so I was trying my best to collect my thoughts and formulate them into something coherent and helpful.

Then, a small prayer group that meets every week in the room right across from my office erupted in song: 

“Happy Birthday to you!” 

I immediately lit up and began to smile at the beauty of their friendship. This small group of women meet week after week to pray together for an hour, some join on Zoom just to be together. It made me want to “cry out with joy and gladness…” because Jesus was near.

Do you realize that God is with you right now? Not in an ethereal, “kum ba ya” kind of way, but that He is literally standing or sitting right next to you. The Bible literally says his name is “Emmanuel” which means “God is with us.” When I say I am with my friends, I don’t mean that I am spiritually connected to them wherever they are. I mean that I am physically with them at that very moment. That is how present the Lord is to us. When we can attune our hearts and minds to be more aware of His constant presence, we with have more joy.

The problem is noise. Everything else is too loud or causes us to feel too rushed for us to notice that He is there. We focus all of our attention on trivial things and making them essential to the point that the essential things in our life become trivial. The tasks rule our day at the expense of our prayer life, instead of God ruling our day and us fitting the tasks in when there is time.

I referenced my rather difficult therapy session; it was particularly difficult because it involved diving into the memory of my best friend’s death when I was a teenager. It has made me reflect more consciously on my own death and the reality that everyone I know and love will die one day. I find myself asking:

—What will be left unsaid? 

—What experiences will I have wished we had together?

—Am I being present?

—Are the things that distract me from being present, or take away my time and energy from family and friendships, are they really worth it?

This week I encourage you to spend some time thinking about and praying with these questions. Think about the fact that one day you will be gone, and everyone you know will be too. Will all the noise have been worth it? All the distractions?

When we joyfully recognize Jesus’ constant presence in our lives, it allows us to be joyfully present to everyone else. I hope that is something that characterizes and describes my life. I would rather die with a huge to-do list, than a list of unsaid words, absentee friendships, missed memories, and delayed experiences. In order for that to be true, I need to put down the to-do list, and embrace the “today” list: everyone and everything God blesses me with today, in the present moment. I pray and hope that I will receive it all with joy knowing that Jesus is here celebrating it all with me. I pray and hope you will do the same.

Please pray for me as I pray for you, and I will see you in the Eucharist.

Matt