Rose, Pink? Who cares? Gaudete Sunday is about so much more: Homily for Sunday, December 13, 2025

Do we make Gaudete Sunday too small? Do we reduce the reason for our hope and joy to something that is really not all that important? This Sunday is about so much more than what color we call the vestments. It is about what Jesus has done for us. About how his coming into our world, and his ultimate coming at the end of time is about his victory over sin and death. So, Rejoice! Readings for Today.

Rose, Pink? Who cares? Gaudete Sunday is about so much more

Today is Gaudete Sunday, from the Latin command “Rejoice!” Gaudete became associated with this Sunday from the entrance antiphon for Mass, which says the following: 

“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.”

I have to begin with a pet peeve of mine. Among certain circles in the Church there is an insistence on calling the color of the vestments rose instead of pink. I believe this reflects a misunderstanding of the naming of liturgical colors in Romance languages where the word for rose and pink is the same.

It is a pet peeve because it makes what we do in celebrating Gaudete Sunday small. For it fails to focus on why we call Gaudete Sunday by this name. Sometimes in thinking about the world, we might ask how we can rejoice at all.

And the reason we have this break in Advent to focus on joy (and also a break during the season of Lent called Laetare Sunday) is because in the midst of penitential seasons we need to be reminded of the end of the story.

In the northern hemisphere the time of Advent is literally a time of increasing darkness. Days continue to get shorter, and in some places remain dark all day. In many parts of the country there are more cloudy days. The snow and the cold force people to be indoors.

The time of Advent is penitential because our sinfulness caused the need for a Savior. We call Jesus our savior because he saves us from something. Namely, he saves us from our sins.

We need to acknowledge our sinfulness and seek reconciliation with God and others. As much as we might focus on others for the many problems of the world, our sins cause difficulty and suffering. 

Tomorrow there is an opportunity to acknowledge sinfulness at our Advent Penance Service. (Monday night from 6-9pm). There was a period where individual confession became replaced for some by “general absolution”. Let’s be clear: Vatican II did not say that we no longer needed to go to individual confession.

General Absolution is an exceptional and very rare event. It is limited to those instances when it becomes impossible for the priest to hear confessions from all those who want to go. And even with general absolution, each person who receives it has the obligation to go to confession as soon as is possible.

Vatican II never changed this. Why the emphasis on individual confession? Because we increasingly live in a world where personal dignity is less and less respected. A world where online purchases limit face to face encounter. A world where for too many people relationships are too often lived in social media, where face to face encounter is simply not possible, even though we know it is best.

Confession is ultimately a sacrament where we should rejoice. It is a sacrament of worship every bit as essential as the celebration of the eucharist. Why? Because as I used to tell the high school students I taught, in confession you walk in a sinner and walk out a saint.

One extreme before Vatican II was too great an emphasis in some ways on our unworthiness. It was almost as if we could not be saved. But after Vatican II the shift became in some circles that we did not need to be saved. We were just too good.

The truth is that we sin. This is not just that we commit accidents, but rather we deliberately choose to reject God. We know something is wrong and sinful, but we freely choose to do it anyway.  And Jesus knew that we would need much reassurance, since we are often too aware that we sin.

On the night of the resurrection, Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and said this: 

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. [Jesus] said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”

And so, why is it we are called to rejoice this Sunday? Because we are not stuck in our brokenness and sin. Jesus did not come to condemn us, but to save us, so that we could have eternal life.

We are called to rejoice because we are people who have been given hope. Hope not a fragile wish that things will turn out ok, but hope that not only can Jesus save us, he will. And not just us.

Our hope arises because Jesus came into our world, in history, to conquer sin and death. As bad as things get, we are called to embrace that hope. When we love God and our neighbor, our sin and death is not the whole story. We can be saved because of the love of Jesus. And that is cause for rejoicing indeed.

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