Rejoice and be glad, the priest is wearing pink this weekend!

Okay, so technically we don’t rejoice because the priest wears pink, the priest wears pink because we’re rejoicing, but depending on your priest and how uncomfortable he feels looking like a bottle of Pepto Bismol… there can at least be some laughs.

This weekend is Gaudete Sunday, the time of the season when we take a momentary break from our penitential longing to remember that Jesus has already come, that there is already such great news all around us. Sure, he may not have arrived from his cloud to restore all that has been broken and we may not find ourselves yet in the perfect Kingdom, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take a second to be happy with what we have now. Our God has given us so much and loves us unconditionally. How could we do anything but rejoice‽

But that’s the easy part. Of course there is reason to rejoice, and for most of us, we can find many reasons to be thankful. God has blessed our lives with abundance. No, the question that I want to ponder, and what our Gospel suggests this week, is, how do we respond to God’s great love and mercy?

I want to contend that once we have found reason for rejoicing, once we have seen the amazing work that God has done in us and in the world, we can’t go back to who we were before we rejoiced; we can’t be the same person. Rather, we must live as people knowing the glory of God. This means sharing what we’ve found, changing our lives to better reflect the kingdom, and doing everything we can to make sure everyone rejoices with us.