December 15, 2013
The Third Sunday in Advent

Joy is a pink candle in a blue season.    All of the other candles on the Advent Wreath are purple, the traditional color of penitence.   Long before people got ready for Christmas by heading out to the shopping mall and singing about dancing snowmen, the season of Advent was a solemn time to reflect on life and make the changes necessary to prepare for Christ's coming.  But there was a moment in Advent, the third Sunday, when the responsive antiphon for the day was the familiar passage from Philippians:  " Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, rejoice."

It seems strange to command anyone to be joyful.   Yet many of the prayers and anthems we use in churches contain words telling us to "be joyful" or "rejoice greatly."  The truth is that you can't experience joy by an act of will, or by trying harder.   In fact, it seems that the harder you try to acquire it, the more elusive it becomes.   Instead, joy appears unexpectedly, when you are doing something else.    When you love fully and deeply,  joy dawns.    Or it blossoms when you receive a gift or a kindness you neither deserved or expected.   And I believe that if you live in the moment, as if it were a holy wonder or a sublime joke, you may suddenly be surprised by joy.  It is, in itself, a gift--like a present,  tossed into our lives from outside.    My dog teaches me about joy as we take a walk in the snow.   In a big field I throw the ball and watch him turn himself inside out with excitement.  "Do it again!" he seems to say.  When this beautiful thing called joy appears in your heart, you want to chase the ball over and over again, or maybe sing, or dance, or hug somebody.   Gaudete!

Joy

Joy is the flying tongue
and the wild tail,
the leap as the ball is thrown,
and the unfettered chase.
This small creature's heart
is full
of this one moment,
alive in a world covered with snow
with a ball to chase.
I would be a child of such joy,
today.
I would see you
at the end of this tether
of flesh and bone,
and feel my heart dance
in expectation, trust, gratitude,
and love, too.
I would sing carols,
light candles,
embrace the world,
hoping that you would
reach into your pocket
and fling your gift,
your ball of joy.

--Timothy Haut, December 15, 2013