Rejoice in Christ, the Hope Actualized
Just how stirred up are you by Advent? Are we in fact, in the words of St Paul, ready to “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice, The Lord is near.”? (Philippians 4, 4-5).
This particular text and its opening word “rejoice” is historically tied to the Third Sunday of Advent – which came to be known as Gaudete Sunday in consequence– because Gaudete is the first word of the antiphon or Introit at the beginning of the Mass: in Latin, “Gaudete in Domino semper: iterum dico, gaudete….. Dominus prope est.” 1
This text points immediately to an inner tension which has always been present in the Advent season – right back to its earliest roots in patristic and medieval liturgical tradition. This reflects the way that this time serves simultaneously as a preparation for two distinct events: the historical commemoration of Christ’s nativity at Christmas and the eschatological anticipation of Christ’s final and second advent to come at the consummation of all things, which is to say the parousia.
The first two Sundays of Advent emphasized the imminence of Christ’s arrival through readings replete with apocalyptic imagery and warnings of divine judgment, well encapsulated in the ambivalent significance of the liturgical formula “The Lord is coming.”
But now, with Gaudete Sunday, the liturgical focus changes: so that rather than stressing that “The Lord is coming,” the emphasis moves to reminding that “The Lord is near”. This at once changes the tone from anticipatory vigilance, reflection and repentance, toward joyous confidence in the imminent proximity of the coming of salvation in Christ.
This transition reflects a theological awareness that Christian preparation in this Season must encompass not merely penitential contrition, but also, the eschatological joy appropriate to the coming of the Saviour so long foretold.
The Pauline emphasis upon Christian joy is reflected in the repeated exhortation to rejoice (in Philippians 4:4-5), and informs his further injunction to pray without anxiety and with thanksgiving in all circumstances (verse 6). But it is important to note that this spiritual stance transcends the merely emotional (and is thus a perspective that transcends our mere feelings) for it represents a deeply theological posture of confidence in divine providence and present grace.
This Pauline perspective therefore grounds the deeper meaning of gaudete and the call to rejoice as being not at all mere superficial jubilation, but rather as the fundamental Christian orientation, wherein the Christian virtue of hope actualized – here within the season of patient waiting that is the season of Advent.
The readings assigned to Gaudete Sunday also feature John the Baptist’s ministry as herald of the Messiah, and also implicitly therefore emphasize concrete Christian moral conduct as the manifestation appropriate to genuine conversion of life in Christ for his followers.
John the Baptist, as the forerunner who testified to Christ’s identity while diminishing his own role— “He must increase; I must decrease”— illustrates the paradoxical joy of Christian discipleship. John the Baptist’s message to inquiring crowds, recorded in Luke’s Gospel enjoins practical virtue rather than ascetical extremism: hence for example, those possessing two cloaks should share with those having none; tax collectors should collect only legitimate taxes; and soldiers should refrain from violence and extortion.
This perspective of moral reorientation in alignment with God’s intentions for creation therefore invites practical expression and frames Christian rejoicing not in withdrawal from temporal responsibilities but in their transformed and transformational execution in acts of love and charity. This also serves to distinguish the joy appropriate to this Sunday from mere festive anticipation.
All of this makes the use of rose (or pink) vestments on Gaudete Sunday quite deeply meaningful.
The use of the rose color represents a distinctive medieval liturgical innovation, paralleled in the observance of Laetare Sunday during Lent. And the rose color is neither the pure white of resurrection joy nor the deeper violet of penitential seasons, but rather a softened violet approaching white — and as such a visible chromatic representation of the already-yet-not-fully-realized eschatological reality so distinctive of the Season. This aesthetic choice thus expresses what medieval and patristic theology termed the mysterium of Christian temporal existence: the was as among the faithful comprising the body of Christ live within the already-inaugurated kingdom of God while also awaiting its final consummation.
The rose color also carries ancient Christological symbolism derived from scriptural prophecy and patristic interpretation. Christ fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah 11:1, “There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root,” while the Song of Songs (2:1) identifies Christ with the mystical rose, “the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys.”
Yet there is too the fact that a rose’s beauty coexists with its thorns, thus symbolizing theologically the confluence of joy and suffering, triumph and passion inseparable from redemptive mystery.
The third candle of the Advent wreath, likewise designated rose or pink, carries the designation “Shepherd’s Candle,” evoking the shepherds who first experienced the joyful anticipation upon receiving news of Christ’s nativity, before proceeding to Bethlehem. And their role also served to emphasise the accessibility of the coming salvation to all whatever our material circumstances and estate through the inexorable character of the ever growing proximity to divine grace that lies at the heart of our awareness throughout this time of Advent.
Lastly in our prayers this Sunday we begin to look to the final days of Advent, commencing on 17 December, and which feature the solemn recitation of the great O Antiphons — seven ancient antiphonal verses invoking Christ through titles drawn from Old Testament prophecy and patristic theology: O Wisdom, O Adonai, O Key of David, O Radiant Dawn, O King of the Nations, O Emmanuel. These antiphons, while intensifying the sense of longing and impatience characteristic of their location in Advent, nonetheless build upon the foundation of hope and joy established through Gaudete Sunday’s midseason affirmation.
All this expresses the Church’s sustained conviction that Christian hope, grounded in God’s redemptive initiative made manifest in Christ’s incarnation, provides the basis for joy even amid temporal suffering, penitential discipline, and awareness of human sinfulness. In this way, Gaudete Sunday continues to proclaim, as it has for more than fifteen centuries of Christian tradition, the paradoxical message that authentic Christian faith and witness encompasses both moral rigor and self-examination as well as confident expectation and trust in the salvation brought to us through the birth of Christ in Bethlehem.
1. The word antiphon itself derives from the Greek ἀντίφωνον (antíphōnon), meaning “sounding against” or “responsive sound” and comprises, in the Western Christian tradition, a short liturgical chant typically consisting of a verse or sentence from Scripture, and most especially the Psalms. It is sung or recited before and after a psalm, canticle, or other text during services, with the purpose of framing the content thematically. Antiphons would themselves originally often have been performed antiphonally by alternating choirs in order to heighten yet further the effect.
Antiphons were historically prominent in the Daily Office and especially in Matins and Vespers, where they introduced and concluded psalms to highlight their liturgical significance. But as in this case Antiphons were also used in the Mass for the Introit, Offertory, and Communion chants.
They have a very long history going back to early Christian practices which were themselves heavily influenced by Jewish synagogue traditions, where responsive singing of Psalms without instruments had become standard by the first century AD. In synagogues, psalms were chanted antiphonally or responsorially, with a cantor leading and the assembly replying, a method that directly shaped Christian gatherings as we know from early patristic accounts. This inheritance is evident in the Didache (c. 100 AD), which urges thanksgiving through hymns after meals, echoing synagogue-style reciprocity, and even in Pliny the Younger’s report (c. 112 AD) of Christians singing responsively to Christ as to a god.
It is thought that a key development occurred in the late fourth century when St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan (374–397 AD) introduced antiphonal psalmody to counter Arian influences during a siege in 386 AD. Drawing from Eastern traditions, Ambrose divided congregations into two choirs to alternate verses of Psalms, (as is recounted by his contemporary St. Augustine in the Confessions), thereby establishing this responsive format in Western liturgy around Milan by 384 AD. After that it is thought that Pope St. Celestine I in the 5th century further promoted antiphonal psalmody and the practice then evolved through the Middle Ages, with standardized melodies in Gregorian chant and specialized forms such as the Advent O Antiphons (referenced in the Prayers of the People this coming Sunday at the 9 am Mass) and Marian antiphons as well.
The Orthodox or Eastern Church, has its own distinctive tradition in this regard also and there St. Basil the Great (c. 330–379 AD) is held to have similarly promoted alternating psalmody in monastic communities, dividing singers into groups during the Daily Office, as outlined in his ascetic writings and monastic Rules for Cappadocian monasteries by around the mid-fourth century. In both cases, biblical refrains came to be integrated thus with a framing role into structured worship and prayer life in both East and West.
The original liturgical pattern for this Sunday in Advent would in full have comprised:
Gaudete in Domino semper: iterum dico, gaudete: modestia vestra nota sit omnibus hominibus: Dominus prope est. Nihil solliciti sitis: sed in omni oratione petitiones vestræ innotescant apud Deum. (Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.)
Ps.84 Benedixisti, Domine, terram tuam: avertisti captivitatem Iacob. (O Lord thou hast blessed thy land: thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob.)
Gaudete in Domino semper: iterum dico, gaudete: modestia vestra nota sit omnibus hominibus: Dominus prope est. Nihil solliciti sitis: sed in omni oratione petitiones vestræ innotescant apud Deum.
The parallel naming of “Laetere Sunday”, the fourth Sunday in Lent, when rose Vestments are also worn, came about the same way from the opening word of the Antiphon for that day: “Laetare Jerusalem,” meaning “Rejoice, O Jerusalem”).