When we celebrate Gaudate Sunday, instead of lighting the 3rd purple candle, we light the rose colored candle. We do this to draw attention to the fact of how close it is not to Christmas. We rejoice in the fact that our Savior is coming. We rejoice that He is part of our world. We rejoice because 2000 years ago, God became man. He was born just as we are born. He walked this earth just as we do today.
John the Baptist, in the beginning of the Gospel of John, is examined by the Pharisees. They want to know is identity. They wonder why so many people flock to him. So they ask him if he is Elijah.
"No", he responds.
"Are you one of the prophets," they ask.
"No", he responds once more.
"Then who are you?" they ask.
He speaks the prophecy from the Prophet Isaiah.
"I am the voice of the one crying out in the desert, prepare the way of the Lord", he tells everyone around him.
John testified to the Light of the World. There is much darkness in the world sometimes. But like a singular candle flame that burns amid the darkness, all eyes are drawn towards it. It sticks out.
