Gaudete

Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if amyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
Revelation 3:20

In the Roman missal the third Sunday in Advent is called “Gaudete Sunday”. Gaudete is the first word in the Introit, which is taken from Paul’s exhortation to the Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, rejoice!” (4:4)  On this Sunday rose-colored vestments replace the blue vestments of Advent, and, on our Advent wreath, the pink candle is lighted. 

There is a corresponding Sunday in Lent, “Laetare Sunday,” again an exhortation to rejoice, taken this time from the prophet Isaiah. 

These two breaks in the dark seasons of Advent and Lent remind me of the oriental symbol of the Tao: two interlocking swirls, one black and one white, and in the middle of each swirl a dot of the opposing color: a white dot in the black swirl, and a black dot in the white swirl. 

The Tao symbol represents balance, the balance on which nature rests and depends, and the balance which the international conference on climate change, now meeting in Copenhagen, seeks to redress, before it is too late. 

I had a friend who used to say as a joke, “Too much of a good thing is wonderful,” but we all know that it is excess which has brought on the current crisis. 

Ne quid nimis; meden agan: both in Latin and in Greek we are warned, “Nothing in excess.” 

Whether it is religious zeal, excessive carbon emissions, drug overdose, it is excess which upsets the delicate balance on which nature and our own individual lives depend. In the Bible there is a delicate balance between the books of the Old Testament and the books of the New Testament.  Dietrich Bonhoefer, the Protestant pastor who was martyred by the Nazis, wrote from prison that it is unwise to come to the New Testament before having worked through the Old Testament.  The God of Israel and the God of Jesus Christ are the same God, contrary to what the 2nd century heretic Marcion wanted us to believe.  

The Book of Revelation, from which my text is taken, predicts the disasters which are to befall the human race.  Some of those disasters have befallen us already: dry river beds, melting ice caps, vanishing rain forests. 

The invitation from the Son of man to break bread with us gives us one last chance to repent of the evil which we have done to God’s good creation.  But it is up to us to accept the invitation: the door at which the Savior knocks opens only from within.

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December 13, 2009