Gaudete

Rejoice.

Today's liturgical calendar tells us to "rejoice" - break out the pink candle, the rose vestments (if you're lucky), and rejoice! The season of waiting, of preparing and repenting is almost over. We are more than halfway there - Christ comes so very soon!

Rejoice.

Sometimes, real life does not always coincide with liturgical life.

A dear, dear friend that I made when I moved here was due with her second little girl at the end of January. Her oldest is nine months younger than my oldest and her new little miss was going to be just a few months younger than our little pumpkin.

She went into labor this morning and her baby did not make it. She had trisomy 18 and did not survive the birth. Other than higher than normal amniotic fluid levels that started a few weeks ago, she had had no complications in her pregnancy or any indication that something might be wrong.

My heart breaks for them; for their oldest daughter; for their whole family who had planned much rejoicing for this new little baby in the coming weeks.

Rejoice.

It seems that we must remember, as Christians, that our rejoicing does not always look like the world's rejoicing. Who can find joy, peace, or a semblance of happiness in the death of a baby? In the pain of a family who has lost their daughter?

Only someone who trusts in the resurrection.

Someone who knows that this baby was a gift from God and a blessing to her family, despite her brief thirty minutes with them. Someone who hopes that she will be standing in wait on the last day. Someone who believes that she is now an advocate for her family and all of us before the Throne as a member of the Communion of Saints. Someone who trusts in the promise of new life in the death of Christ, through baptism.

"Man, you are dust and to dust you shall return." Despite the pain and sorrow, we must take hope and comfort, we must rejoice, in these moments because they are signposts that we are not made for this place. We merely journey here, struggle here and fight the good fight as St. Paul tells us, that we might be welcomed one day in our true Home.

How fitting too, that this happened not only on Gaudete Sunday, but also on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, our mother who knows only too well the heartbreak of losing a Child.

May she carry their little girl straight to the loving arms of the Most Sacred Heart. And, too, may she wrap her warm mantle around this grieving family, that they might rejoice again at the hope brought by her Son at Christmas.