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Today is called “Gaudete” Sunday, named after the first word of the entrance antiphon of the Mass: “Rejoice (gaudete) in the Lord always; again, I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near.” (Phil 4:4–5) In this verse, St. Paul tells us not only to rejoice, but he also gives us a reason why: “The Lord is near.” This is the joy of late Advent, as the excitement and anticipation of the coming of the Messiah builds.

The very presence of the Lord brings profound healing to the human person on every level. This is the good news proclaimed to the disciples of St. John the Baptist in today’s Gospel: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.”

Father Simeon Leiva-Merikakis calls this verse a “poem” of God’s great deeds. He writes, “How moving it is to see that the presence of God’s Holy One is demonstrated initially, not by a great proclamation of the divine glory and attributes, but indirectly, by the extremely simple affirmation of the effects of that presence on man. We may say that God modestly hides his glory within restored human faculties; for, as St. Irenaeus says, ‘The glory of God is man fully alive.’ We have before us a poem to the glory of God, because it is a poem of fragmented man being made whole.”

Our joy at the coming of the savior is bound up with our profound need for one. Because we need God, his approach is felt more keenly. And because he reveals himself to be compassionate and merciful, his approach can be welcomed and not feared. Like a patient exposing a wound to a doctor, we can open ourselves to the Lord’s drawing nearby. Even as the doctor is carefully examining the wound, the patient already knows greater peace, trusting the doctor’s skillfulness in healing.

Imagine seeing your own wound without knowing any doctor who could heal it. Imagine experiencing your own need without knowing that there is something (or someone) who can fill it. This is what it means not to know Christ. How important it is for us to bring the good news to those who do not yet know it. We want them to share in the joy of the Lord who draws near rather than to give into despair. Pope John Paul II noted this in his Angelus address on the Third Sunday of Advent in 2001: “As an expert Mother, the church knows better than any other institution the difficulties and sufferings that are part of the human condition. She knows well that in the life of many peoples and persons sadness prevails over joy, anxiety over hope. It is particularly to these men and women that the Christmas message is proclaimed in a preferential way”.

If the glory of God is man fully alive, then our very lives can be a witness of the glory of God to the sad and despairing world around us — that is, if we have let ourselves be healed by the Messiah, who draws near, and filled with the joy of his nearness. If so, that healing and joy is something we can share with others by bringing them to the source. Our lives can make visible the gifts of the Lord.

Pope John Paul II continued, “The serious problems surrounding human life sometimes make it difficult to recognize the gifts of Christ. The mission of the church, which is coached by the Holy Spirit, is precisely that of making his gifts visible and of witnessing to their presence. Today humanity yearns especially for the gifts of joy and peace. It is our mission as believers, with the eloquence of love expressed in deeds, to become every day the prophetic ferment of a world reconciled by love and animated by divine joy.”