Gaudete: reflecting on the Magnificat - Allocutio by Fr Marin

On the third Sunday of Advent - Gaudete Sunday - the Church invites us to rejoice with Mother Mary, to share her joy and to live always cheerfully. There are various types of joys. The experiential kind, which arises when good things happen to us, is real but not long-lasting and deep and does not exclude the possibility of concurrent deep unhappiness: you can be rich and healthy and still be miserable. Then there's the joy of Mary: the joy of being with God, participating in the divine life. Mary was not freed from material problems; in fact her problems increased after the Annunciation. Her relationship with Joseph was in trouble, she was poor - and yet when she opened her mouth, we hear the joy in her heart.

Thus, Our Lady teaches us that we can always be happy with God. Material goods should not be the source of our joy. After all, we'll never have enough good things - we'll always want more. Mary tells us that it is enough to be with God. God did not promise to remove suffering. He came to us - that's the remedy.

Let us always be humble enough, like Mary was, to remember that we need God.