Fr Robert Hendrickson

Today is a funny Sunday in the Lenten season. It is Laetare Sunday. The day’s theme comes from the entrance antiphon reflecting on Isaiah 66:10-11: “Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her. Be joyful, all who were in mourning...” Laetare is the first word — meaning “rejoice” — in the Latin text.

On Laetare Sunday (as similarly with the Third Sunday of Advent’s Gaudete Sunday) the Church expresses hope and joy in the midst of our Lenten fasts and penances. Call it pink — or, more fittingly, rose — there are frequently vestments of a different, brighter color than the Lenten purple and the change in color indicates a glimpse of the joy that awaits us at Easter, just before we enter into the somber days of Passiontide.

It’s a day when marriages (customarily not done in Lent) could be celebrated and flowers and even the odd Alleluia crept into other wise spare liturgies. Today, I’m doing a bit of shivering and aching. I got the second vaccine shot yesterday and it is working its way through. My body is reacting to it and kicking up a bit of a fight.

Yet, all that struggle represents a sign of hope — that soon we will gather and pray and sing and more together. We will travel, see family, get our businesses back on track, and more.

Lent is always a bit like this — a bit of struggle as the Body is inoculated again. Few relish a good investigation of our sins or the work of amendment of life. Yet, year after year, we come through perhaps with chills and aches as we approach the Resurrection with fresh hope. We make our way through the valley of the shadow and watch for the light breaking into the valley’s recesses. The first glimpse reminds us that there’s still trudging to do — but we’re nearly there — and He is too.

In the midst of this long season we get this little break — a glimpse of Easter. There is still more to come. It is not Palm Sunday yet. It is not Holy Week yet. It is not Easter yet. But forgive me if I’m taking full advantage of this Lenten respite, chills and aches and all, to look ahead to the joy to come.

Laetare indeed.

Fr Robert