The Joy That Finds Us As We Live in the Wilderness

Fr. Damian Torres-Botello, SJ

For the four Sundays of Advent, Bondings 2.0 will present reflections on the Sunday scriptures from writers who represent each of the categories the LGBT community: lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender.

Today’s post is from Father Damian Torres-Botello, SJ, a Jesuit priest and director of evangelization for the Cincinnati Jesuit Parish Family whose ministry blends Ignatian spirituality, creative expression, justice, and compassionate pastoral care. www.thedtbsj.com

Today’s liturgical readings for the Third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete Sunday) can be found by clicking here.

There is a particular kind of joy that comes only after wandering through a wilderness. Not the cheerful sparkle of storefronts and Christmas cards, but the joy that rises slowly in places where life has felt dry or uncertain. Gaudete Sunday, which we celebrate today, points us toward that deeper joy–the joy that breaks open after long stretches of waiting, hoping, and wondering if anything good could grow again.

In the liturgical readings for Gaudete (“Rejoice”) Sunday, Isaiah’s vision gives us a bold picture: “The desert and the parched land will exult…the steppe will rejoice and bloom.” A steppe — a wide, treeless grassland, dry and exposed — seems like the last place anything would flourish. So when Isaiah tells us it will rejoice and bloom, he is naming God’s power to bring life where we least expect it. Joy erupts in unlikely places. Hands once trembling are steadied. Weak knees are strengthened. The blind see. The poor hear good news. Isaiah does not offer a joy that escapes reality; he offers a joy that transforms it.

If we’re honest, some of us in the LGBTQ+ community know this wilderness well. We have walked ground that felt dry beneath our feet. We have tried to grow lives of faith and love in spaces that didn’t always understand us. We have lived through seasons when joy felt far off. Yet Scripture insists on something more. God’s joy is resilient. It takes root in places others have written off. It draws near to those on the margins and whispers: this ground can bloom too.

Joy That Grows Through Steadfastness

In today’s second reading, James says, “Be patient…make your hearts firm.” Patience is not an easy ask, especially when our LGBTQ+ lives have already held so much waiting, waiting to be seen, welcomed, safe. Yet the patience James offers is not passive. It steadies the heart, helping us root ourselves in who we are while trusting that God is at work beneath the surface.

This patience honors the slow work of God, knowing growth often begins unseen and joy sometimes starts as the smallest shoot pushing through hard ground. It refuses to give up on ourselves or on grace.

Sometimes patience means holding one another’s stories with tenderness. Sometimes it is one honest step toward community. Sometimes it is letting others carry us when our strength is thin. Whatever form it takes, joy grows wherever we stay present to our own lives and trust that God is present too.

Joy in the Questions We Carry

In the Gospel passage, John the Baptist, often bold and sure, sends a question to Jesus from the loneliness of prison: “Are you the one who is to come?” Even the prophet who prepared the way knows what it feels like to doubt, to ache for clarity, to reach for God in the dark.

Jesus does not dismiss the question. He points to what is already happening: “Go and tell him what you see.” Tell him where healing is taking root. Tell him where the weary are being lifted. Tell him where hope is breaking open in real lives. Joy is already growing, even if John cannot see it from where he stands.

Many LGBTQ+ people  pray from that same place, asking our own questions, carrying our own longings: Where do I fit? How do I live freely and faithfully? How do I stay rooted in a Church that does not always know how to hold the fullness of who I am? Where is God in this tension I carry? These questions do not come from a lack of faith; they rise from the places where our lives, our identities, and our longing for God meet. Holding them is part of having a faith that is alive, honest, and still reaching for joy.

Jesus does not turn away from hearts that ask honest questions. He leans toward them. He meets us where clarity is thin and invites us to look gently at our own lives because somewhere, quietly, joy is already unfolding.

A Joy That Belongs to You

Gaudete Sunday does not ask us to feel joyful on command. It reminds us that God is near, that joy is something God grows in us, often slowly, sometimes in places we thought were finished or forgotten. It assures us that the wilderness, our wilderness, does not get the final word.

And for many of us, joy itself can feel like an act of courage.
It takes courage to claim joy when others have narrowed its reach.
It takes courage to keep our hearts open when closing them would be easier.
It takes courage to believe our flourishing delights God.
It takes courage to trust that our lives, our loves, our dignity, our hopes, are not obstacles to grace but places where grace already lives.

Isaiah’s promise is not abstract: “They will meet with joy and gladness.” That promise reaches toward you. It touches your story, your heart, your faithfulness. It includes your whole, beloved life. Joy is the quiet sign that God keeps choosing to draw near, especially in the places that feel most fragile.

Rejoice, beloved. Joy is on its way. And joy is already within you.

–Fr. Damian Torres-Botello, SJ, December 14, 2025

ADVENT RESOURCES

To enhance your Advent journey, consider looking into two New Ways Ministry resources:

1. Journeys: A Scripture Reflection Series for LGBTQ+ people and Allies:  This series is a collection of reflection exercises on a wide variety of scripture passages. These exercises are appropriate for individual or communal reflection, and many parish LGBTQ+ ministries have used them for disccussions. For the exercises for Advent Sunday liturgical scriptures, click on the links below:

Up to the Mountain – Isaiah 2:1-5 (1st Sunday)

Down to the Roots – Isaiah 11:1-10 (2nd Sunday)

Out to the Desert – Isaiah 35: 1-6a, 10 (3rd Sunday)

Into Your Home – Matthew 1:18-24 (4th Sunday)

2. The Word Goes Out: LGBTQ+ Scripture Reflections for the Liturgical Calendar: This brand-new resource is an archive of all of Bondings 2.0’s Sunday scripture reflection posts.   Check out the ones for the four Advent Sundays.   Additonally, check out general reflections on the Advent season to spark your prayer and reflection.  You can also find short reflections by Bondings 2.0 readers for The Isaiah Project, a series or responses to passages from the Book of Isaiah that we ran during Advent 2019.