REJOICE?
Today is Laetare Sunday – ‘Laetare’ from the Latin text of the entrance antiphon which would be heard in a choral eucharist, ‘Laetare Jerusalem…’, that is, ‘Rejoice, Jerusalem…’. It’s halfway through Lent, so we can take a wee breather.
But rejoicing is very often ambiguous. The Psalm for today is the well-known ‘By the rivers of Babylon’, recalling the Jewish people’s exile in the sixth century before Christ. The antiphon is taken from Isaiah 66, where the prophet looks forward to the end of the exile. So we have dispossession and restoration. But I imagine that even after the return to Jerusalem, it was hard to forget the exile.
In the southern hemisphere, Lent coincides with autumn, the time of harvest. Jenny and I are fortunate to be able to grow a lot of our own vegetables and fruit, and the harvest is indeed prolific this year. We shall have tomatoes and apples in the freezer to keep us going for months; there is fresh corn, and the chickens are not on strike. On one level, then, I could write about being grateful for the goodness of God and of God’s Earth – and I am grateful.
But Lent also directs us to think of our neighbour – of the cry of the poor and now the cry of the Earth, too. In this month’s WelCom, Mena Antonio of Caritas Aotearoa writes of peace and war, reflecting especially on the fighting in Gaza. I am trying to remind myself that gratitude for one’s own blessings is a bit hollow if one does not also remember the needs of others. Isaiah says something like this in chapter 1: ‘even though you make many prayers, I will not listen… cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow’.
In Laudato Si’, Pope Francis writes of how gratitude might entail ‘a recognition that the world is God’s loving gift, and that we are called quietly to imitate his generosity in self-sacrifice and good works’ (para 220). In asking us to ensure that we give thanks for food, he suggests that this ‘reminds us of our dependence on God for life; it strengthens our feeling of gratitude for the gifts of creation; it acknowledges those who by their labours provide us with these goods; and it reaffirms our solidarity with those in greatest need’ (227).
– Jim McAloon
