Do Less and Allow God’s Joy to Find Us

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The pink candle is lit on the Advent wreath. Gaudete Sunday! Did you ever wonder why we have a day for joy in the middle of Advent? Advent is this time of stillness, waiting, preparation, even simplicity—some people call it a mini Lent. And we know that we’re preparing for the great feast of the Incarnation, Christmas. Isn’t Christmas the time for joy, with the lights and the presents and the feast and the music? During this time of stillness and preparation, Advent, why do we have a day to remind us of joy?

We might associate joy with big events, big feasts, lots of activity. But I’ve been reading a lot lately about the connection between joy and stillness, between joy and rest. The author and theologian Tricia Hersey proclaims that rest is resistance—resistance to the “grind culture” that tells us we’re only worthy if we’re either working, spending or both.^[i] Sound a little familiar this time of year? The Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper said that we need times when we’re not working or resting up for work—we need times of leisure—in order to truly celebrate what is real.^[ii] He said that in leisure, we acquiesce to our own being, we say Yes to who we are as God’s creation, we remember that we receive ourselves as gifts from God instead of creating ourselves by our own efforts.  

Could joy be waiting for us when we rest?  John Paul II points to God’s rest on the seventh day of creation. Of course, the Creator is not tired, or inactive, or asleep. He says, “The divine rest of the seventh day … speaks of God's lingering before the ‘very good’ work [of creation] in order to cast upon it a gaze full of joyous delight. This is a ‘contemplative’ gaze which does not look to new accomplishments but enjoys the beauty of what has already been achieved.”^[iii] Picture a parent watching their beloved child play. God casts on us a gaze of joyous delight. A contemplative gaze that enjoys the beauty of who we already are. Didn’t we hear this in today’s first reading? The prophet tells God’s people to shout for joy, because God rejoices in you.

Here's the difference between God’s joy, and the joy we are called to on this Gaudete Sunday. God is infinite. We, beloveds, are finite. God is omnipotent! We, beloveds, are limited and fallible. God can rest in joy and delight in beloved creation WITHOUT stopping any bit of the divine activity that undergirds and calls forth and loves into being, all of creation. But we, we humans, in order to rest in joy, we need to actually… rest. In order to give thanks, to celebrate, to behold and give our Yes to all the goodness that God is pouring out on us even now—we have to slow down. We have to pay attention. We have to step back for a time from working, fixing, tending, evaluating, because we can’t celebrate creation while we’re trying to change it. We can’t celebrate creation at the same time we’re trying to change it. I know it’s hard to stop. There is so much hurt in the world, so many wounds for us to bind up and repair. But listen: our readings tell us to rejoice ten separate times, I counted. God created us for work, and rest. For giving, and for celebrating the gifts we have received. They are not the same, and we’re created to do both.

To be ready for joy, we have to do less. In the Gospel reading, John the Baptist shows us how: share what you have; don’t take more than you need; resist the temptation to abuse your power. DO less, HAVE less, MAKE DO with less. God can do all the things at once; we can’t. And we’re commanded to joy. We’re commanded to leave room to cast a gaze of joyous delight on what is real: the gifts of creation and the joy of the Incarnation that’s promised. But we need time. We need space. We need silence. We need to be ready. What great wisdom in the Church’s tradition, to put a day for joy in this season of stillness, to remind us that joy comes when we slow down, when we accept silence and waiting and inactivity, and when we remember that everything good is a gift from God. Yes, indeed, Advent is a time for joy.

If it were easy to make do with less, we wouldn’t need God. All John the Baptist had to say was “share your food and don’t abuse your power” and the people were like “He is obviously from God. Because this is not the way the world thinks.” Tricia Hersey points us to the Gospel song, This joy that I have, the world didn’t give it to me, the world didn’t give it, the world can’t take it away. No indeed, joy doesn’t come from extra clothes, from power over others, from profiting off our positions. Joy comes from resting in the presence of what is real: our God, our loved ones, the beauty of God’s creation. God help us to make do with less: less power, less wealth, less busy-ness and activity. On this Gaudete Sunday in Advent, lead us to the stillness where we find your joy.

^[i] Tricia Hersey, Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto, 1st edition (New York: Little, Brown Spark, 2022).

^[ii] Josef Pieper, Leisure, the Basis of Culture, trans. Alexander Dru (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2009).

^[iii] John Paul II, “Dies Domini (May 31, 1998) | John Paul II,” May 31, 1998, para. 11, https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_letters/1998/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_05071998_dies-domini.html.

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