JOY Sunday, December 13, 2015

 Psalm 51: 10 – 12 

It’s the third Sunday of Advent; our theme for the week is joy. Are you feeling joyful and open to the coming of the Christ Child? If so, thanks be to God!

But Christmas is more, or perhaps less, than the birth of our Lord and Saviour, just as this season of Advent is more, or rather less, than the expectation of Christ’s return. In this most secularized of religious seasons, our society exhorts us not to prayer and thanksgiving, but to buying and spending, cooking and eating, more and more and more and more. The pressure on everyone to “love,” to “give,” to “enjoy” is so strong that for many, Advent and Christmas have become the worst rather than the best of times. Suicide rates are higher, depression soars, family tensions increase, and we find ourselves frantic and grasping rather than joyful.

What is the answer? Brother Lawrence suggests that we practice the presence of God in all that we do, however mundane and, at this time of year, however desperate or frenzied the pace. And the psalm tells us what to ask for:

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

and put a new and right spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from your presence,

and do not take your holy spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation,

and sustain in me a willing spirit. 

Ps. 51.10-12 NRSV

And to quote our Lord and Saviour: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find” (Mt. 7.7); ask for peace, ask for presence, ask for prayer, ask for joy. It shall be given you.

Sr. Sue Elwyn, SSJD