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“Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice!” When I hear these words from St. Paul, I’m tempted to think that he is being overly optimistic. How can we rejoice in the Lord always? How can a parent who has lost a child rejoice? How can someone who has unjustly lost his or her job to a vaccine mandate rejoice? How can we as a culture rejoice when thousands of innocent children are being aborted every day?

The reason we can rejoice in the midst of all of this is because we rejoice in the Lord, not in the things of this world.

There have always been problems and there will always be problems, so, somehow, we must always find a way to rejoice in the Lord. The best one to teach us how to do this is Mary.

The prophecy of Zephaniah can be attributed to Israel’s immaculate daughter, Mary.
“Shout for joy, O daughter Zion! Sing joyfully, O Israel! Be glad and exult with all your heart O daughter Jerusalem! The LORD has removed the judgment against you; he has turned away your enemies; the King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst” (Zep 3).

Mary grew up in poverty in an Israel that was ruled by the tyrannical Roman Empire. Despite this, she rejoiced in the Lord always. When she conceived the Lord in her womb, she went in haste to help her cousin Elizabeth and upon this meeting she said, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God my savior” (Lk 1).

Many years later she would witness the brutal passion and death of her Son. How did she rejoice in the midst of this? Through her tears, she was able to trust that God was doing something amazing for our salvation.

Now that Mary is in heaven, she can see this a lot more clearly. God is still working for our salvation despite the many problems in our world.

In 1528, a holy Franciscan priest was appointed bishop of what is now Mexico. Bishop Juan Zumarraga left the turbulent Protestant reformation in Europe only to enter the turbulent relationship of the indigenous people and the Spaniards. He tried to defend their dignity and rights but the damage was done. The indigenous people wanted nothing from the Spaniards, including their religion. Every effort of Bishop Zumarraga and the missionaries failed, so he turned to Mary for help.

When she appeared on St. Juan Diego’s tilma as the Virgin of Guadalupe on Dec. 12, 1531, she was dancing on the moon. In the midst of the splintering of Christianity and the divisions among God’s children, she danced. In other words, she rejoiced. She rejoiced because she trusted that God was about to do something amazing for their salvation. In just 10 years, 9 million indigenous people joyfully embraced Christianity and were baptized into the Catholic faith. This offset the large number of people who were leaving the Catholic Church in Europe due to the Protestant Reformation.

When we look at the many problems and divisions in our world and our Church today, it’s very difficult to rejoice. The more we focus on these problems, the more discouraged and depressed we become. Instead, we need to be like Mary and stay focused on the Lord and trust that he is still preparing us for something amazing for our salvation in our time. The more we focus on this, the more we are able to rejoice in the Lord always.

Father Przybilla is pastor of St. Charles Borromeo in St. Anthony.

Sunday, Dec. 12 
Third Sunday of Advent