Rejoice! Joy is the message of Gaudete Sunday. “Shout for joy, O daughter of Zion! Sing Joyfully, O Israel!” Originally forty days of fasting, Advent used to be a more penitential season than it is today.  Things change.  Indeed, throughout the first millennium the length and Masses of Advent fluctuated a great deal but St. Gregory the Great put his seal on the season when he promulgated his sacramentary collection.  At that time there were five Sundays in Advent but by the 10th century the Church in the West was mostly celebrating four Sundays leading up to Cristes Maesse, as it was known in the Old English.

Codex Vaticanus Barberini latinus 2154. Illustrated. Copied from L in 1620

It wasn’t just Advent that changed.  As we all know, the actual date of Christmas changed throughout the centuries. The Egyptian Church celebrated it on May 20th as long ago as 200 A.D. However, theological arguments and quasi-scientific theories saw the date jump around from late April to early January to late December. The earliest reliable reference to December 25th was found in an illustrated Roman calendar dated 354. The 17th century copy of this so-called Philocalian Calendar is preserved in the Vatican Library. This compendium of facts and dates indicates that Christmas was first celebrated on December 25th in the year 336 A.D. In the civil side of the ‘ledger’ is recorded Natalis Invicti, referring to Dies Natalis Invicti Solis (Birth of the Unconquered Sun). But in the Depositio Martyrum area of the calendar – the list of venerated Christian martyrs – is recorded these memorable words: Natus Christus in Betleem Iudeæ.

The connection between the solar cult and Christ seems to have been at least a century old by that time as there are references to this in the fathers. For example, Cyprian wrote the following in 243 A.D., “O quam præclare providentia ut illo die quo natus est Sol . . . nasceretur Christus.” — “O, how wonderfully acted Providence that on that day on which that Sun was born . . . Christ should be born.”  As it adopted this rapprochement, the Church in Rome preached that the truly Unconquered was not the rising sun on the solstice horizon but the joy of the entire world at the birth of a tiny child in the town of Bethlehem.

All things are transformed in Christ, even the most ancient and powerful of symbols. On Gautete Sunday, the Church turns fully toward recognizing the miracle and mystery of Christmas. It is no longer far off – the coming of God among us ceases to be a distant concept – the coming of Jesus of Nazareth is close at hand.  The time of penance is over.  Now begins the season of joy.