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With Joy I Welcome You

14/12/2023

1 Comment

 

A Reflection on the Second Reading for Sunday, December 17th, 2023
​
Third Sunday of Advent


1 Thessalonians
5.16-24

​
Brothers and sisters, rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of Prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil.

May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.
Pause. Pray. Reflect.
“[R]ejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

I can picture myself responding to Paul’s direction – a constantly grinning person, wandering around muttering endless prayers under my breath and wildly yelling out, “Thanks, God!” whenever I stumble across a circumstance.  

Admittedly, that is how I sometimes live my life as a Christian. Rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks when things are going my way and I’m on a mountaintop with the Lord. But check in with me as I travel down the rocky road back to the valley of reality and stumble upon a less than favourable circumstance. In my humanness, it becomes hard work to remain joyful … to be prayerful … and sometimes, most particularly, to give thanks.  

Yet that is precisely what Paul is calling me to do. I am being reminded to focus fully on God and offer my whole life as an act of prayer and worship. I am told to trust that God, who has called me, is faithful and with me on the mountaintop and the rocky road, and in the valley.

Our pastor greets every person he meets with what has become his trademark question. He asks, “How are you?” and pauses. As a congregation, we have become trained to answer, “Happy!” and we usually chuckle. He then asks, “Are you happy?” even though most of us have just told him that we are. He goes on to say, “I’m happy, and with joy I welcome you..”

On the surface, this might be taken as a simple query into the circumstances of your life or a way to open a conversation or Mass. But if you ask him why he opens conversations that way, he’ll tell you that he is actually asking if you are confident in the knowledge that God is with you and whether you are happy because of that, regardless of your circumstance.  

When I am focused on managing whatever my current circumstance is on my own, my response to his first question comes out as a lukewarm, routine, trained, “happy.” In those times when I have been really tested and I understand that my only hope lies in trusting in God, I wait through the pause and tearfully, gratefully, answer “yes” to the second question.  

It is those times when I lean into the truth that my happiness comes only from God that I find I can offer up my whole life as an act of prayer, worship, and gratitude, regardless of the current circumstance. Offering up my whole life means including those circumstances that test me and that others in society look at as perhaps intolerable. When I don’t quench the fire of the Spirit and understand that those circumstances may be present so that I can benefit from the gift of sacrifice, I can indeed pray without ceasing because I have the right attitude in my heart. And when I have that attitude, I become worthy of bringing the Good News to others, and I find myself also able to say, “With joy I welcome you,” as I invite God more fully into my heart. May this Advent season prepare room for Him in our hearts.

​

​Sandy Graves
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1 Comment
Lorrie Yunace
14/12/2023 07:00:43 am

Dear Sister Sandy. I never thought of why your priest greeted people that way other than he is so joyful and is fill of the Spirit. But really he is asking me if I am walking the walk (despite my circumstances good or bad) . I love this! Thanks for your reflection ❤️Lorrie

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