Thought of the week - 14 December 2025

Gaudete, Gaudete Christus est natus. Ex Maria Virgine, Gaudete.

Rejoice, rejoice! Christ is born of the Virgin Mary. Rejoice.

Gaudete. Rejoice.

The Messiah, the Christ is coming. He will come to be the light to lighten the gentiles and to be the glory of His people Israel. And as the Gaudete carol continues:

Deus homo factus est natura Murante, mundus renovates est a Christo regnante.

God has become man, with nature marvelling. The world has become renewed by the reigning Christ.

Joy. Joy will come to the world. Joy will be ours.

Advent is a penitential season – a time for reflection, penance and preparation for the coming Christ. The liturgical colour is purple, and our first two Advent candles are purple. But today is Gaudete Sunday, a day of joyful anticipation for the coming Christ. A day to shift away from the more sombre purple to a gentler joyful rose. And the third Advent candle, soon to be lit, reflects this too.

At Advent 2, last Sunday, we heard about John the Baptist preaching in the Judean wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord. Baptising with water while the One who is coming will baptise with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He will clear the threshing floor, will gather the wheat unto Himself but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire. Strong stuff! A powerful Messiah who will defeat the Romans and restore the good of Isreal to glory. And John the Baptist, as his father Zechariah proclaims in the words of the Benedictus ‘will go before the Lord to prepare His way.’

Clearly great things were ahead.

John even knew, somehow, while he was still unborn when his Lord was near as he leapt in his mother’s womb when Mary paid Elizabeth, John’s mother, a visit.

Great things were indeed ahead.

But hang on; today we hear that John is in prison. He’d been imprisoned by King Herod for chastising him about marrying his ex sister in law. And where was this promised Messiah? Rome is still in power. Herod is still king – still as corrupt as ever. What’s going on? Is Jesus really who John thought He was? Is He truly the Messiah? John is beginning to doubt!

Rather than being a man of fire, sweeping aside the wicked and corrupt, Jesus seems to be working from a different script. He’s befriending tax collectors and other sinners. He’s healing people. Gaining a great reputation but not for what John expected. It’s like a main character in a stage play had gone rogue and done something which the other characters had not expected. How do they handle it? How does John handle this possible disappointment? He needs to know what’s going on. ‘Are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another?’ He is doubting – something we really wouldn’t expect of John the Baptist. He is wondering if his life, his proclaiming in the wilderness for this man, this Jesus – was it all in vain? All for nought?

John the Baptist doubted. And that’s OK. It’s OK to doubt. Doubt can be a virtue – a sort of failsafe because without it, without some measure of reservation on things we’d likely end up making one heck of a mess of things. But if, when, we do doubt, do we have the courage to admit it? Thomas certainly did when he was told of Jesus’ resurrection because he was elsewhere when Jesus appeared to His disciples after that first Easter morning. And we hear today that John the Baptist also begins to doubt – something which led to him asking, via his disciples, what has been described as perhaps one of the most poignant and heartfelt questions in the whole of scripture: ‘are you the one who is to come or shall we wait for another?’ Have I made a massive mistake all these years? And now I’m in prison am I going to miss the coming of the true Messiah?

Can you even begin to imagine what was going on in John’s mind? Confusion? Disappointment?

John doubted. And what did he do? He took his question to the Lord. And that’s what we must do, whenever we doubt. Take our doubts to the Lord in prayer. And oh so often, God will speak to our doubts through scripture. And that is just how Jesus responded to John. Not with a straightforward ‘Yes, I am He’. But He answers John by quoting the very scripture which inspired John to cry out in the wilderness, to prepare the way for the Lord. Jesus spoke words from the book of Isaiah – the very Old Testament reading we heard this morning.

But why does Jesus take John to the Bible in His answer? I believe that the Bible, scripture, is the basis upon which everything else is built. Our traditions are essentially based upon our experiences and this, along with our reason, with regards to things theological, is driven by our assimilation of scripture. The Holy Spirit is working in us, through us and beyond us to guide our lives of faith and to bring us closer to God – through scripture. Faith – our lives of faith. Jesus’ answer to John give him hope. We are not told that the disciples actually took Jesus’ answer back to John, but we can hope that they did. And if so, John can die knowing that he was right in doing what he has been doing. And that’s what true faith is all about. And true faith gives us hope – true hope. Faith may not change our circumstances, but it gives us hope. Unwavering hope carried deep within the heart of all Christians who know that Christ goes with them and before them. Heaven is in the heart of the Christian who hopes.

Faith seeking understanding (fides quaerens intellectum) is the motto of St Anselm of Canterbury, 11th century Benedictine monk. We need to admit that we don’t understand it all but by faith we strive towards that goal, towards that understanding. And to doubt? Well doubt can be an important lens through which we can see what God is really doing in the world.

John doubted; Jesus’ direction towards scripture will have strengthened John’s faith and given him hope.

Whenever we doubt, we must pray. Take a breath. Look around at our beautiful world. See God’s work – trust Him, trust His timing (because God’s timing is perfect). As we approach the nativity, on this Gaudete Sunday let us have faith, hope, joy. And let us kneel in wonder and adoration at the child in the manger. Believe in the Saviour born for us who grew up to heal, to teach, to proclaim the good news. He did not grow up to be a mighty warrior and great political leader but a gentle, suffering servant.

John did not live to see the crucifixion and the resurrection. But we live in a post Easter world. We know how the story develops – not ends, because it has not ended yet. We believe what we have been told about how the story progresses because we have faith. And we are called to share that faith and to answer, whenever asked, is Jesus the one or are we to wait for another, that yes – Jesus is the one, the world’s Saviour, the resurrection and the life.

Gaudete, Gaudete Christus est natus. Ex Maria Virgine, Gaudete.

Rejoice, rejoice! Christ is born of the Virgin Mary. Rejoice.