The seasons
of Lent and Advent have for their liturgical colour Violet. In the midst of
these two seasons we discover the colour Rose. The Sundays characterised by the
colour Rose are called Laetare or Gaudete. At Masses when
we do not sing, we should recite the Entrance Antiphon. Both Laetare
and Gaudete
are translated from the respective Antiphons as “Rejoice”.
The colour
Rose reveals the wisdom of the Church who perceives the coincidence of nature with
the mysteries of salvation. Both light and life are the two natural phenomena
of nature. From darkness and death, light and life emerge and so the change
from darkness to light is captured by the season of winter and the transition
from death to life is proper to the season of spring. The liturgical cycle of
the Church is therefore based on these phenomena. The progressive diminishment
of light and the silence of life germinating are both captured most fittingly
by the colour Violet and not, surprisingly by Black. Why? Black is not really a
colour. Instead, Black may be described as the absence of colour and of light,
whereas, Rose which brightens the shade of Violet stands as an anticipation of
the reality of the birth of Christ at Christmas and the new life of
Resurrection at Easter.
The colour
Rose in the midst of these two seasons places us within the mystery of the
“already, and not yet” of Christian life here on earth. It leaves behind the
dark of violet but it is not completely white yet. So, we have been saved and
yet we wait for Christ to come. 1 Cor 13:12 says it most aptly: Now we are
seeing a dim reflexion in a mirror; but then we shall be seeing face to face.
This Rose of “already, and not yet” may help navigate our discipleship through
this lacrimarum
valle, this valley of tears.
We often hear
of the three comings of the Lord. In times past, He came to us in our weakness
and in our flesh. In the future, He will come again in glory and with majesty.
At Christmas, He comes in Spirit and in power. Now, there is continuity or
integrity at Advent whereby the three comings are at once celebrated and anticipated.
We rejoice with the Prophets of old who waited for the coming of the Messiah
and marvel at how His coming has made a profound difference in history. We also
long for His Second Coming with the clouds of heaven so that our journey to
life’s completion may come to a happy conclusion. However, there is a meantime
whereby we wait for His coming more deeply into our life now, so as to prepare
for His final coming.
Amongst the
three comings, two are visible—in the past and in the future. The present
coming is invisible and this is the one which is not easy because waiting is
not an easy exercise. We are readily distracted by the cares of the world and
weighed down by the burdens of life. So, Holy Mother Church dares us to hold
our heads high not because of pride but because she believes with her being
that salvation is near. As the colour Rose lightens the dark of Violet, we dare
to rejoice because Christ’s salvation approaches us. So we are joyful that
Christ can come more deeply into our lives.
As He comes,
the Church encourages us to ask for the virtues of fortitude and patience. It
is always easy to try to change something outside of us. You can repaint a
house or renovate a kitchen. You can do up your car and decorate your house.
But, the work of inner conversion requires fortitude. It is a virtue needed for
our journey. Imagine the number of people who have given up hope especially
with regard to a recurring sin. They think that confession once will remove
their propensity to sin but their experience is otherwise. They keep failing
and falling and as result they lose courage. Fortitude is the strength not to
lose hope whereas patience is the ability to wait in anticipation as God works
His miracle upon us. Thus, patience is fortitude over time because there is
hardship involved in waiting especially when we are changing. We live in an
instantaneous bubble expecting that what we want is always on tap and all we
need is to press the button. But, as in all interior conversion, it is a
life-long journey which often involves letting go of that which is beyond our
control, a letting go which is not despairing but is full of trust in God.
Let me tell
you a story of which I am not proud. But, it may give you a glimpse of how our
joy is to be like. It was a Gaudete Sunday Mass. The procession
started and the manner the entrance hymn was sung, I wanted to kill myself
because it sucked the joy out of me. Now, you see, a lot of times our reaction
to the joy being sucked out of us is to blame the other person as in “I was
pissed off. You made me angry. You made me do it.”. It was difficult to shake
off the annoyance whilst I was celebrating Mass. Sometimes, we may say to
ourselves, “I already have a difficult day and I do not need this”… and so we
justify our anger or worse our rage. For
me, as priests, these are the “reasons” for my anger or annoyance: stupid
parishioners who do not seem to understand, sacristan who keeps missing out on
things, choir that sings so that nobody wants to sing, altar servers who
continually make the same mistakes. Objectively, there may be a lot of truth in
what I have just mentioned and there is need for improvement. But, the truth is
this, many a times life is never organised according to what we think it should
be and whilst it can be trying, Christian joy should still be able to break
through not because it is falsely optimistic. It is less emotion and more an
attitude because it comes from an inner strength that is based on trust in God
and support by both fortitude and patience.
Thus,
fortitude and patience are needed so that joy may radiate from us even if we
should stand in the shadow of the Cross. Since we cannot give of ourselves
these virtues, we need to beseech the Lord for them. As the darkness of night
envelops us, we know that soon light will prevail. So
in the joy of fortitude and patience, we keep watch. As Christ came once
before, we dare to cast our anxieties onto Him, as we wait and watch for the
day when He will come again at Christmas or at the end of time.
