Rejoice in the Lord Always?
Dec
14
Written by:
Sunday, December 14, 2008
3rd Sunday of Advent
December 14, 2008
Rejoice always, never cease praying, render constant thanks. Such is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not stifle the Spirit
1 Thessalonians 5:16
We like to think of the Advent and Christmas seasons as being times of great joy, but for many of us what they really are actually are times of great stress. There's just no getting around it. Life itself for many of us seems to alternate between ups and downs, joy and sorrow. While joy is a gift of the Spirit and cannot be manufactured, rejoicing is a choice. Fortunately, St Paul does not tell us to be joyful always, but rather to rejoice always. How do we do that?
Rejoice always. Saint Paul gives us the key in the second reading today. Rejoicing does not depend on our emotions; we do not need to feel happy to rejoice; things do not have to be going our way to rejoice; no matter how good or bad things in our lives may get, we can always choose to rejoice. The key is to realize that while joy is an emotion, to rejoice is an act of the will.
Render constant thanks. When we choose to give thanks to God for the circumstances of our lives, this becomes an act of rejoicing. When we give thanks for things that are not to our liking we glorify God even more, for this is an act of trust that God will work things out to good. The choice to give thanks is a choice for rejoicing. This opens the floodgates of God's grace, even if we don't feel any emotions of joy at the time.
Never cease praying. If we have set aside some time for prayer each day, then the next step is to strive to be mindful of God as we go about our daily lives and tasks. We pray always by striving to glorify God in the way we speak, drive, eat, shop, watch TV, work and play. All of these things can become a kind of prayer, and this too is rejoicing. So we can rejoice no matter how we feel at the time. Using a phrase or an aspiration like "Praise God" or "Thank you Lord" or "Jesus have mercy on me or "Come, Lord Jesus" as we work can instill the habit of rejoicing.
Do not stifle the Spirit. Thanklessness, a lack of gratitude, a complaining spirit, a life lived without any thought of God binds the Holy Spirit. But when we choose to rejoice, we are, in a way, already living in heaven, because in heaven, everyone rejoices, all the time!
Father Gary