3rd Sunday of Advent, Year C

3 ^rd Sunday of Advent, Year C

Peace be with you on this, our celebration of the third Sunday in Advent, also called Gaudete (gau da ta) or Joyful Sunday. As we do every year at this Mass, we light the rose-colored candle on our advent wreath, and we wear these attractive rose-colored vestments. Pretty good looking and joyful, don’t you think?

Well, I read several commentaries written by lots of smart people about this celebration today and generally they all talk about slowing down and giving yourself time to be spiritually joyful. They advised us not to fret about all the stuff we haven’t done yet getting ready for Christmas. They say stop, pray, and think of all the good things life had given us. Pretty good advice as we rush around focusing on all the material elements of the holidays, just exactly as our materialist society tells us we should be doing.

Friends, when you do slow down for just a minute, it’s important to meditate on what joy really means and what the reason for Christmas joy really is. Meditating on the true meaning of joy is particularly important because the word joy is often misunderstood, especially spiritually. Many think joy is always reduced only to pleasurable feelings or physical delights. Joy, however, is NOT a simple pleasure or delight. Gosh, even my dog takes delight in getting a doggie treat, but good old Daniel Webster tells us joy is an emotion. And folks, as hard as it is for all of us pet owners to believe, real emotion just happens to be a uniquely, God given, human only trait.

So, what causes this uniquely human and yet, very positive emotion we call joy? My sisters and brothers, true joy, that’s true joy, can only be generated by another God given, uniquely human trait – love! The joy of Christmas, therefore, does not come from all the bright and colorful holiday “stuff” our culture wants us to buy. Far greater than the presents we exchange at Christmas is the presence of Jesus Christ, sent to us by God the Father out of love! A gift wrapped in swaddling clothes. God’s presence in the Word made flesh is the true source of Christian joy. As people of faith, this is why we can actually feel joy, yes joy, even when we might be suffering.

Now, I’ll have to admit, when I first read those commentaries, where they advised me to slow down and think of the good things’ life has given me, I initially thought to myself, what about those people suffering at Christmas? If I’m physically, mentally, or emotionally in pain right now it’s real hard to think about good things’ life has given me. Anybody ever been there or maybe, you’re there right now? I couldn’t help thinking about a 20-year-old Paul Keil, December 1968, halfway around the world from home, sitting there with other guys, sipping warm beer in a dark, damp, dirt floored shelter, staring at a stupid little plastic Christmas tree. We were not joyful, and we cried. In fact, mental health professionals tell us, Christmas is sometimes a season of even greater despair for those suffering, especially emotionally.

OK, so let’s start with today’s readings to talk about joy for everyone, but especially those who may be suffering. First, of all, in the Gospel we hear the same question asked three times, “what should we do?” John the Baptist gives three specific answers in three specific situations, but the real answer comes from Paul in the second reading. “Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice!” Really? OK St Paul, but I’m lonely, during my first Christmas away from home, with people trying to kill me every single day, staring at that stupid little plastic Christmas tree, and you want me to rejoice?

Well, fortunately for me, and for all of us sitting here in Church today, we now know the whole salvation story. First, let’s always remember the Bible operates at multiple levels, both literal and spiritual. Now, as we read the Bible, never, never, never think that Jesus wasn’t literally a great healer and miracle worker. He did literally cure physical blindness, physical crippling disease, physical deafness, and even physical death. Today however, we might look at all those physical conditions as metaphors for our own spiritual ailments. If the most successful leader in industry is spiritually blind then, like anyone who cannot see, he or she may spiritually wonder aimlessly tripping over obstacles, unless someone is there to guide, and guidance is accepted. With the incarnation the Creator God was, and still is, repairing a creation damaged by sin. With his life, death, and resurrection Jesus Christ is eternally dealing with the greatest suffering affecting all of humanity, and you know what, it’s not physical. The greatest suffering is brought about by alienation from God – through sin.

Let me make a suggestion for homework. During the rest of this Advent Season, wow, for the rest of our lives for that matter, let’s get our Bibles out and review all those physical ailments Jesus cured during his earthly sojourn and ask; am I sometimes spiritually blind, spiritually crippled, spiritually deaf, or even spiritually dead? Maybe I should relook at that list and make it part of my examination of conscience before reconciliation. Regardless, we can confidently know Jesus is perfectly merciful, ready to heal us of our spiritual ailments, and forgive our sins, just like he healed and forgave those suffering 2000 years ago.

Before his Ascension, the Lord Jesus promised he would never abandon us when he said, “I am with you always, until the end of the age.” He remains present with us in many ways, but especially through the Eucharist. Always, always, always remember, real joy, I say again, real joy is a uniquely, God given, human emotion and it is not dependent upon physical pleasure or even physical wellness. It is dependent on love. So today, we can truly rejoice before the True Presence of the Lord on the altar given in love.

May the Blessed Virgin Mary, the first to experience the presence of the Lord in the flesh come to our aid as we approach the solemn days of Christmas, reminding us, “there is cause for rejoicing here.” (1Pet 1:6). Amen.

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Paul T. Keil, 18-19 July 2026 16 th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Season A Peace be with you and welcome to our celebration of the Mass for the 16 th Sunday in Ordinary Time. OK, some of you may remember I’ve said before, in Matthew’s Gospel, Chapters 5, 6, and 7 comprise the whole Sermon on the Mount, but did you know Chapter 13, where we are today, is often called the Sermon of the Parables. In this single chapter Matthew strings together seven separate parables from Jesus. Today we just heard numbers two, three, and four. Last weekend we heard the first one with the Parable of the Sower and what happens to the seeds scattered in different places. Next weekend you’ll hear the final three parables from Chapter 13 so, be sure to come back. So, what is Jesus saying in these readings. Last week we heard the parable about seeds as an allegory for Jesus’s words falling on a path and being eaten by birds, falling on rocky ground and withering with no roots, falling into thorns and being choked by life’s anxieties, and falling on fertile soil to bear fruit. Today we have Jesus giving us another parable about planting seeds and again, just like last week, Jesus’ disciples ask him to explain the parable. And since He stops to explain both parables about planting, he just might be trying to emphasize something important here for his disciples, and for us. One thing is clear in these parables however, God’s Kingdom will always coexist in this physical world with forces opposing it, like the wheat and the weeds growing together. Now many religious people struggle with this condition. Some see it as predestination. A weed in the wheat field or a seed in the rocks must represent people predestined to go to hell. That’s what it literally says, right? Still others ask in frustration; this is God we’re talking about, why does God’s Kingdom have to struggle with opposing forces at all? Why doesn’t God just get rid of the evil? Well, our old friend, St Thomas Aquinas wrote quite a bit about good and evil coexisting in our fallen world. He said sometimes the two are so tightly interwoven that you couldn’t have certain types of good without certain types of evil. For example, he said simply, “there would be no virtue of the martyr without the cruelty of the tyrant.” Friends, God delights in our freedom, our intelligence, and our cooperation when we freely make the decision to accept God’s love. Without free will we cannot choose to love. Jesus’ explanation of the wheat and weed parable certainly helps when he says; “The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels” and in the next verse he says; “The Son of Man will send his angels.” There is a very important take-away here every single Christian should remember. Eternal judgment belongs to God alone, not to anyone else – period. This is a consistent message Jesus gives us in all four Gospels but unfortunately, there are those who sometimes forget this simple divine fact about humanity’s relationship with the unlimited creator of the universe. We may perceive an individual as being bad or even intrinsically evil but judgment for their immortal souls belongs exclusively to God. I always like an old adage that goes like this, “if I ever get to heaven, I may be surprised by who I see there, and they may be even more surprised to see me.” I’ll admit, over the years for a long time, as I’ve meditated on this parable about weeds and wheat or last week’s parable about seeds, especially the ones falling into thorns choked by worldly anxiety, there was something always bothering me. You see, if we’re not careful both parables can make life, heaven, and hell sound kind of random or worse yet, they can make God’s love sound like it is exclusively reserved for preselected people. I know now however, there is nothing further from the truth. If you’ve lived life for a while and think back to times when you were say maybe,,, struggling in school, or first dating, or trying to make ends meet while raising a family, or competing for promotions at work, or trying to buy that first house, you realize there may have been times when your life wasn’t very spiritually fruitful. In fact, I now realize there were times in my own past when thoughts of God, salvation, or prayer were nowhere in my daily routine. I even wonder; was there a period in my life when I was one of those weeds or a seed in the thorns? Thankfully, with reflection on the whole of Scripture, guidance from the Church, and maybe some help from the Holy Spirit I realize now these parables are not “either / or” propositions. God doesn’t intentionally create some people as weeds and some people as wheat nor does God throw souls into the wind to randomly fall in the thorns, or on stony ground, or in fertile soil. If you’re not careful, you can come to those conclusions, however. You can read the Bible too narrowly and pick out verses here and there that help support your personal image of what you want God to be. Those tend to be the same people who like to do God’s judgment work for him. Here’s the thing; some of us here today may have actually spent some time as those ugly weeds but at some point, with God’s help, we decided to change and now we’re wheat growing in that good old fertile soil. My sisters and brothers, sin must never be viewed as a permanent state. Like we heard from the Book of Wisdom today, “you gave your children good ground for hope that you would permit repentance for their sins.” This is the greatest gift of our Christian faith; God loves us all so much, even great sinners, God is always ready to forgive. So, here’s a challenge and homework for us all today. Most of us know people out there from all age groups, but especially some of our youth, who may be temporarily living life like the weeds in our parable today or maybe tangled in those thorns of life’s tribulations. First and foremost, we must be confident, sin is not a permanent state of life, second, we don’t judge, third, pray for them no matter how nasty they may seem. And finally, if we’re really, really brave, we offer them a hand to pull them up and out of the weeds, rocks, or thorns into God’s fertile soil.