Rose-Colored Jello

Gaudéte in Dómino semper: íterum dico, gaudéte.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice!

Phillippians 4:4

At the vigil Mass last night the priest spoke of the special significance the rose-colored candle and vestments for this Third Sunday of Advent have for him personally. He was four years old in December of 1941, a prisoner of the Third Reich. His father was a Canadian trade commissioner stationed in Oslo, and following the invasion of Norway in 1940, the entire family spent two years in internment camps in Germany before a prisoner exchange was eventually arranged.

Largely cut off form the world, the internees did receive Red Cross aid packages, the most prized of which were the ones sent from Canada. And during that bleak Christmas season, one such package contained an unheard-of delicacy: rose-colored Jello. The happiness of that rare treat, the hope it gave him, the joy with which it filled his child's heart—these memories were clearly still alive and vivid for him nearly seventy years later.

His connection of his story with the joyful hope we celebrate this day, this season, reminded me that as a Christian I am called to be focused on hope and joy. Despair and anger are not valid responses for me. Through whatever trials and hardships we are enduring, I can and must look forward to the joys to come, both the joys of the better tomorrows that I continue to believe are coming, and the untold joy of the eschaton which is the object of our ultimate hope.