This week on “Preach,” the script is flipped: Ricardo da Silva, S.J., the regular host, becomes a guest preacher, and Maggi Van Dorn, a usual producer, takes the mic as the host. Maggi and Ricardo, who work together extensively on “Preach,” “Hark! The stories behind our favorite Christmas carols” and “Inside the Vatican,” compare how preachers and podcasters alike craft stories to captivate their audience.
Ricardo explains that even though he prayerfully prepares a structured homily before the Mass, when he is at the pulpit at the Church of St. Francis Xavier in New York, “it’s a conversation,” so he tries to ask questions that speak to the lives of the people in the congregation. “I've learned to trust that God has my back and that it'll start and it'll end and it'll touch somebody.”
[Do you have a preacher to recommend for Preach? Let us know here. ]
On this Gaudete Sunday, Ricardo invites listeners to identify where they have experienced joy, even as he admits that we live in a world where joy is hard to come by.
The Third Sunday of Advent is meant to “mark a shift,” says Ricardo. “This is the time to begin to really look forward to the birth of Christ.” By identifying where he has found lasting joy in his own life, he helps to usher in the joy of Christmastime in his parish community. “For some people, joy is there in abundance, and you only miss it if you don’t pay attention.”
In his homily, Ricardo tells a story by Pedro Arrupe, S.J., who was the 28th Superior General of the Society of Jesus from 1965 to 1983. The story is about Arrupe's visit to a Brazilian favela, and it helps Ricardo explore the connection between joy and self-gift. “Joy cannot be manufactured. It's not something that we can create for ourselves,” explains Ricardo. “It’s something that sort of happens in a moment, in a flash, and then we catch ourselves in a joyful state.”
Joy cannot be manufactured. It's not something that we can create for ourselves.
Scripture Readings for the Third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete), Year B
First Reading: Is 61:1-2a, 10-11
Responsorial Psalm: Lk 1:46-48; 49-50, 53-54
Second Reading: 1 Thes 5:16-24
Gospel: Jn 1:6-8, 19-28
You can find the full text of the readings here.
Homily for the Third Sunday in Advent (Gaudete), Year B, by Ricardo da Silva, S.J.
After Mass, a big fellow whose looks could have inspired fear came up to me and said, “Come to my house. I have something to honor you.” I remained uncertain, not knowing whether I should accept or not, but the priest who was accompanying me said, “Go with him, Father. The people are very good.”
So I went to his house, which was a half-falling shack, and he made me sit down on a rickety chair. From where I was seated, the sun could be seen as it was setting. The fellow said to me, “Señor, see how beautiful it is,” and we remained silent for some minutes. The sun disappeared. The man added, “I did not know how to thank you for all that you have done for us. I have nothing to give you, but I thought you'd like to see the sunset. It pleased you, didn't it? Have a good evening.” He then gave me his hand. As I was leaving, I thought, ‘I have met very few hearts that are so kind.’
[Excerpt from an address by Pedro Arrupe, S.J., to the Eucharistic Youth Movement in September 1979.]
Today we celebrate Gaudete, rejoice, and there are few stories in my own life that bring me joy as that story that I have just read to you. It is a story told by Pedro Arrupe, one of the Superior Generals of the Society of Jesus, when he visited a favela, a shanty town, a very poor place in Brazil where the people had nothing to give. And he thought that he was there to proclaim the Gospel, and he was, and he was there at Mass, and he did that. But by the end of it, he realizes that the people who are proclaiming the Gospel are really the people who were in the pews. There was a moment for him of pure joy.
And I think that's really important for us, because if we look at today's readings, joy hits us between the eyes. We keep being told to be joyful. And as I reflected on the story of Pedro Arrupe, there were key moments—key aspects to it—that really helped me to grasp what joy is about. And I think that comes up in various ways in our readings. So let me walk you through those. In the first instance, joy cannot be manufactured. It's not something that we can create for ourselves. It's something that sort of happens in a moment, in a flash, and then we catch ourselves in a joyful state. I was panicking before this homily, not knowing quite where to go. The story came to me, and I felt joy.
If we look at today's readings, joy hits us between the eyes.
Pedro Arrupe was getting on with his day, celebrating Mass, not expecting what would happen, and joy came. It came to him in a very ordinary situation. But it's a situation of pain. It's a situation of people who struggle to make ends meet—who have nothing. And yet they were able to produce such great joy.
We know this is true. We hear this over and over in the Gospel. We hear this today in the reading from Isaiah—proclaim liberty to captives, send me to tell the good news to the poor—that among those who are most impoverished, God is present. Joy is there.
We live in a world filled with devastation, violence, fear, hatred, repression. And yet, we still find ourselves—catch ourselves—in moments of joy. I want you to think in your own lives now, where is it that you have experienced joy in the last few days? Even amid all that is happening in Israel and Gaza; even amid the craziness of this season, conflicts with colleagues at work—joy is there in the middle.
Where is it that you have experienced joy in the last few days?
There's a beautiful section in the reading from Isaiah today: “As the earth brings forth its plants and a garden makes its growth spring up, so will the Lord God make justice and praise spring up before all the nations.” Justice and praise—they go together. This is a moment that we have seen so clearly, I think, in that story from Pedro Arrupe. In the midst of serving people in great need; in the midst of his own poverty, not knowing quite what to do, God comes in, and he is drawn to praise. But perhaps the best kind of joy that comes from that story in Pedro Arrupe is that it’s a gift.
It comes to him entirely surprisingly, without expecting it, as we have said, but it comes to him free of charge. It comes to him in a moment when he didn't even know he needed it. We all know how wonderful it is to receive a gift. This season is all about giving. And perhaps that's one of the redeeming aspects of it, in this commercial world that we live in, that even then it is about something we do for somebody else. It is about giving, giving of ourselves—as the people there gave of themselves in offering the sunset, which was itself a gift from God. As Pedro Arrupe did, without realizing it, in being present to the people in the favela.
We are about to experience in just a few days the gift of God in a real way, in our own lives. God will be born in a manger, in a poor state. And that will be gift enough for us, in the same way that it was gift enough for Pedro Arrupe to experience that sunset and for the people to give the only gift that they could give.
What can I give him, poor as I am?
Maybe we can give him ourselves. And when we do that, we experience the deepest joy of all.
