We recognize that God is among us, and He gives us reason to rejoice no matter our external circumstances. Like the reading from the prophet Zephaniah, God delights in us. He has made possible a way for us to be free from sin.
We are no longer afraid of His presence, like when the Hebrews were frightened to see God descend on Mount Sinai. He comes to us with the desire to transform us so that we live in devotion to Him, making space for Him in us.
Furthermore, we can take a cue from St. Paul, who wrote the words in today's 2nd reading while in prison: No matter our circumstances, we rejoice always because God is close to us, and that grounds us with a great assurance of peace that surpasses what we can understand. I think back to Gaudete Sunday many years ago in college when St. Teresa's put on a huge celebration for us right before we entered our week of testing at the semester's end. Even with all we had going on, we could rejoice that God is among us, because we recognized it in the community we had at St. Teresa's that made Him real.
I'm glad that I've become more aware of God's Presence by writing these short reflections on the Scriptures of Sunday and Holy Day Masses, which started exactly 11 years ago on Gaudete Sunday, December 15, 2013, as I rode a wave of a newfound appreciation of faith in those initial months after college.
We rejoice that God comes to us, which is giving us a joyful new purpose in life.
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