Gospel: John 16: 20-23
Joy is the goal and mark of an authentic spiritual life. Joy signifies the fulfillment of all our hopes, the calming of every fear, and the realization of our every desire culminating in union with God. Through a life of joy we express in our life the fact that nothing can separate us from God's love - no trial, no calamity, no crisis du jour that feeds the false religiosity of the culture wars. Joy is our fundamental posture before the world.
Even in the midst of the two penitential seasons of Advent and Lent we are given glimpses of hope in celebrating Gaudete and Laetare Sundays, two days of anticipatory joy that sustains us to the great feasts of the joy of fulfillment in Christmas - the coming of the long-awaited Messiah - and Easter - the ultimate Passover from death to life. The remainder of the Christian calendar is a life lived in sustained joy that is life with God who is love.
We often criticize Christians who only attend church on Christmas and Easter, but if their attendance at these two feasts is marked by joy, that is a far greater thing than being a regular pew jockey who is dour and without joy. For a life of joy is not an authentic Christian life. It is a life without the Holy Spirit, a life that is not in union with the living God. Let joy be our very life, and may we celebrate joy in others wherever we find it.
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