Defiance in the Dark ~ Gaudete Sunday for Celtic Advent Day 23

The third candle has been lit on our Advent Crown and the light is quietly increasing, although it may feel to many of us that the darkness has deepened since last I wrote.

The UK general election results have left many reeling and deep in grief, and I am amongst them. I have tried to write, and have several half finished pieces to share, but often I am rendered wordless by events or am trying to manage in my own ineffectual way the distress ebbing and flowing here in the hedgehermitage since the vote took place. My husband, who has Asperger's and has already had most of his support from our Government removed and who is currently in the midst of yet another assessment process, is overloaded and overwhelmed. I feel for those, and there are many, who are much less well off than we are.

And so, I breathe deeply as I write that this week's candle, the third of Advent, was dedicated to Gaudete Sunday and to joy.

Gaudete Sunday takes its name from the Latin word 'gaudete', 'Rejoice'.  Some of us may be familiar with the word from the song of the same name by Steeleye Span.

Ever so lovely.

Gaudete in Domino semper: 
iterum dico, gaudete. 
Modestia vestra nota sit 
omnibus hominibus: 
Dominus enim prope est. 
Nihil solliciti sitis: 
sed in omni oratione et 
obsecratione cum gratiarum 
actione petitiones vestræ 
innotescant apud Deum. 
Benedixisti Domine terram tuam: 
avertisti captivitatem Jacob.

Rejoice in the Lord always; 
again I say, rejoice.
Let your forbearance be known to all,
for the Lord is near at hand;
have no anxiety about anything,
but in all things,
by prayer and supplication,
with thanksgiving,
let your requests be known to God.
Lord, you have blessed your land;
you have turned away the captivity of Jacob.

Philippians 4:4–6; Psalm 85 (84):1

This reminds me of Mary's fierce and revolutionary song, the 'Magnificat', which was the first thing I thought to write about as the Election results came in; 'He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.' These songs are not an inventory of what IS but a call to what will BE. Here, is Paul's own song in the face of suffering, written to the Philippians as he awaited sentencing and certain execution at the hands of the Roman Empire; 'Rejoice in the Lord, always'. Not their Lord, of power over and might; OURS, the Peasant King of the World Turned Upside Down. Or, as our priest Eileen described it yesterday, "the upside down world of justice and joy." To find joy, to be joyful in the midst of despair, this too is the Resistance. And that is what Advent is all about.

Theologian Henri Nouwen described the difference between joy and happiness by explaining that happiness relies on external conditions but that joy is knowing that we are held in absolute love and that nothing can take that away. I'm not sure that many of us feel secure in being held in absolute love, despite it being true, but I do agree with Henri Nouwen that joy can be present in the saddest of times. This is what Small Beauties, which I have written about many times before, teach us; that circumstances may sit on us like a dark and increasingly stormy cloud but, every now and again, the sun will come out and we will glimpse wonders.

Last Saturday, still feeling tearful, heartbroken, and raw, I ventured out as I had promised to deliver some leaflets about lovely Christmas happenings. I didn't want to go but I made myself because I had promised. This is anothet reason why community and respobsibility matter; they force us out when we might otherwise curl in ourselves and perhaps never fully reemerge. And so I went out and I did experience moments of joy.

I found that the Goat Willow down the roadhas new leaf buds, I found a newly-revealed-by-winter bird's nest, the bare-branch trees were beautiful against the winter sky, Solid Dennis, our cat companion, found a new sitting place, I played pee-bo in church with a toddler who was fascinated by my bindi and flower hat, I found a quince bush, I received a surprise gift in the post, our new giant bag of bird seed arrived, and our garden was visited by the Mac Gwylan herring gulls who nest on our roof and a stunning magpie.

Some of this weekend's small beauties & moments of joy

And all these things delighted me, even the trees despite them being the only few survivors of a new housing development.  Or perhaps, because of. In this complicated and complex world we often discount what's beautiful, what brings us joy and hope. We so quickly move to, "yes, but....". We don't need escapism or false positivity but we do need moments of joy. They are respite and food for the long journey to justice. To me these little joys are fleeting but perfect moments of connection to the spark of Creation when everything else falls away. We need those.

And respite is just what Gaudete Sunday is all about. As I have written before, following an older tide, Advent once echoed the fasting and austerity of Lent and, like Lent, lasted for forty days, beginning at Martinmas on 11th November. This was known as 'St Martin's Lent', a name by which it was known from at least the 5th Century.

In the 9th Century, Advent was reduced to the more familiar four weeks (or four Sundays) but remained a time of repentance and fasting. Gaudete Sunday, like Laetare Sunday in Lent, falls halfway through this time and is an opportunity to celebrate the closeness of Christmas Day without the accompanying austere practices. There is only so much that people are willing to take! I also recall that there are several made up saints' days during Advent as further excuses for frivolity.

I have long maintained that spring, not winter, is the season for self-denial and gentle fasting and the efforts of our ancestors to find reason for a knees up during Advent is further proof of that.

And so, Gaudete Sunday has opened us into a week of joy in the midst of deep despair for many. This is perfect Advent work; not to suggest that life is easy, but to accept the challenge of finding sweetness in the sour, to affirm that the 'upside down world of justice and joy' is a reality whose time will come, despite the evidence of injustice and sadness all around us, and to be defiant against the dark.

Christingle at St Martin's 1,000 year church

References:

Gaudete Sunday https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaudete_Sunday

Laetare Sunday https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laetare_Sunday

Phillipians https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistle_to_the_Philippians