3rd Sunday of Advent 15.12.19 Degrees of joy
Everyone is in pursuit of happiness, but not necessarily
looking in the right places.
Many look for happiness in this life, as though it were the
only life they have.
Earthly happiness has a way of being very fragile, and also
somewhat futile.
Fragile, insofar as it can easily fall short of what was
desired (like a holiday gone wrong, for instance).
Futile, insofar as such happiness can leave one no happier
than before. It might be just a transient taste of happiness, lasting only for
the moment.
Meanwhile the soul yearns for something deeper.
Christian joy is set deep - deep enough that it does not vary with circumstances. It
remains always firm, no matter what happens around it.
If our union with Christ is deep enough we will never be
separated from Him. Nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in
Christ Jesus our Lord ( Rm 8,38-39).
He gives us a joy that nothing will take away (Jn 16,22).
But do not the misfortunes of the world take away our joy?
Not when we have union with Our Lord Jesus Christ. If we
have Him we have everything. He is the source of all life, all happiness.
He can compensate us for anything we lose along the way; He
can lead us to live with more purpose, free from destructive sin and false
attachments.
In a world of much insecurity our certainty is found in Him,
who is the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb 13,8).
He is the revelation of the one true God, and Himself that
same God. Finding Him is better than winning the lottery or finding gold.
He has called us all to be His disciples, to be in close
union with Him. This may not immediately strike us as a joyful thing, but we
will reach that conclusion eventually.
He calls us, and then strengthens us. We will find we have
the strength to uproot our vices and yield good fruit instead. With that will
come joy, a sense of right order, everything working as it should.
Life might be harder in some ways (eg enduring persecution),
but there is always that sense that with God s help we will get through.
We discover a deeper joy which is neither fragile nor
futile.
Even if being martyred we can still be joyful – because we
are close to Christ and that is where the joy comes from.
We graduate to a higher level of understanding whereby we
are able to say that what He wants is the main thing.
If I get eaten by a lion tomorrow – if that is what He
wants, or at least permits – then I want it too!
Our Lady shows the way, supported by many saints, including
John the Baptist, featured strongly in this Advent season.
One thing God wills is – precisely on this note - that we
will come to trust Him and be completely assured in His presence - in such a
way that we do not change according to the last thing that happened. We learn
to rise above circumstance to a more lasting truth.
We don’t know what happens tomorrow, or next week, or in ten
years etc. We do know that in all those times Christ will be the same as He is
today.
Thus I do not fear even ten thousand coming at me (Ps 3,6).
We can however still pray for the surface things to go well.
Some things at least we can change by our actions or by prayer, and we should
do whatever can be done in those quarters.
We do that much and then defer to deeper plans, trusting in
greater wisdom than our own.
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