Seize the Joys

This coming Sunday is "Lætare Sunday," so named for the first word of the Entrance Antiphon (Isaiah 66:10-11).

Lætare, Jerusalem, et conventum facite, omnes qui diligitis eam; gaudete cum lætitia, qui in tristitia fuistis, ut exsultetis, et satiemini ab uberibus consolationis vestræ.

Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her. Be joyful, all who were in mourning; exult and be satisfied at her consoling breast.

At this halfway point in the penitential season of Lent, priests may wear rose colored vestments. They catch the eye, reminding us of the joy that the risen Christ already has brought to the world:

Deus qui per resurrectionem Filii tui, Domini nostri Iesu Christi, mundum laetificare dignatus es: praesta, quaesumus, ut per eius Genetricem Virginem Mariam, perpetuae capiamus gaudia vitae.

God, who through the resurrection of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, has deigned to rejoice the world: make it so, we ask, that we may seize the joys of everlasting life through His Birth-giver the Virgin Mary. (Author's translation)

One of the (pre-new translation) Lenten collects refers to Lent as "this joyful season" that God gives us each year.

Huh?

We may wonder what there is to be joyful about. We lose sight of the resurrection, or consider it the proverbial carrot before the ecclesial horse, rendering it practically irrelevant to our lives.

It is time to reclaim the joy of faith in the resurrection, which persists in the face of darkness;  the darkness cannot overcome it (cf. John 1:5). The joy of the resurrection provides the context in which we may rightly consider any debilitation of soul or body: "It is so that the works of God might be made visible" (Jn 9:3).

Live so that the works of God might be made visible: that is the summons of the risen Lord.