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Third Sunday in Advent, 2005
Rejoice In ALL Circumstances
When you hear
St. Paul say to the Thessalonians, ‘Brothers and Sisters: Rejoice always,’ do
you think, ‘Well that sounds good, but it isn’t very realistic? How about the
times when my car breaks down, my roof is leaking and I’m overdrawn at the
bank?’ Today we are told that we, indeed, should rejoice always, ‘in all
circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.’
(1Thessalonians 5:16-24) For a moment think about your life and I will think of
mine as we hear this challenge and admonition to rejoice always.
Joy! How often
do you experience ‘joy’? I’m not talking about feeling good, when everything is
going right, the kids are behaving, the kitchen is clean, we’re having a night
off and a vacation is in sight. No, joy is a gift from the Spirit of God that
enables to believe and know and yes, even feel, that even when circumstances are
not going well, either inside of me or outside of me, that all will be well. Joy
is different than a grin or a feeling. It is a deep gift, a conviction, but
something we know inside of us that God is in control; it all doesn’t depend on
me. It is not quite the same as peace, for it is names as a unique gift, but it
is close to peace. It must be a sister to peace.
We live in very,
very troubled times. Wars continue in Iraq, the Middleast, suicide bombers give
their lives to kill even more people, violence increases in all forms
constantly. People are poor and hungry in countries distant from our own and
even here, an affluent and powerful country, we are dismayed by divorce, broken
families, children without parents and grave injustice between the rich and the
poor.
In the Christmas
season we all love to hear the bells, smell the smells of spice and sweetness
and see the designs of green and red. My thought is that much of this delight
is not very deep. Does all the commercialism and the enticing beauty that
surrounds it address the pain and injustice that is calling out for attention?
I’m thinking that it may be a sort of escape for a month from the reality of
what really needs to be addressed. In regards to joy, I question that all the
song and dance is really deeply joy. No wonder there is a big let down on
January 2nd when we must return to face the ‘real music’ which is off
key and dissonant compared to the yuletide song.
This is not to
sound like Scrooge, but to awaken us to a gift from the Spirit that money cannot
buy. Joy is always there for us, even when we know that we are far from a just
society where everyone is fed and clothed and welcomed. We can certainly sing
the songs of the season, but we can sing with joy when we are connected to the
Spirit of God who calls us to tend to the needs of society and address its
injustices.
Our Advent
prophet, Isaiah adds to our understanding of joy. He writes ‘The spirit of the
Lord God is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring
glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the
captives and release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the Lord
and a day of vindication by our God. I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God
is the joy of my soul…’ (Isaiah 61: 1-2A, 10-11)
We notice that
Isaiah is totally aware of the Spirit of God, the Lord’s anointing and that from
this awareness he reaches out to the poor with the Word of salvation, healing
for the hurting and freedom for all imprisoned behind physical bars or emotional
bars. His rejoicing is ‘in the Lord,’ his God.
This may sound
obvious, but it really is the key. There is no joy or real rejoicing apart from
being ‘in the Lord’ and it is ‘in the Lord’ that we are given a share of God’s
own joy. More specifically, joy comes from the Spirit of God. In another place
in Scripture Paul speaks of joy in Galatians, Chapter five, which bears reading
in its entirety, vv. 22 and following, ‘…the fruit of the spirit is love, JOY,
peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and
self-control.’
There it is, our
‘joy,’ nestled among love, peace and the other gifts of the Spirit.
Incidentally, in theological language, joy is one of the ‘Fruits of the Spirit,’
to distinguish them from the seven ‘Gifts’ of the Holy Spirit. If joy is a
fruit then it must be connected to the tree that bears it and this tree is the
life and risen humanity of Christ himself who gave himself in love for us in the
midst of the most unspeakable suffering and injustice.
The tree of the
cross gives life and fruit to us. The Spirit that gives us joy is the Spirit
that was released upon the world when Christ died and was raised by the Father.
Joy is sourced in the Risen Christ and flows from his sacred wounds and loving
passion for us. There must have been times for Jesus when his own joy was
deeply submerged beneath his own suffering and feelings of abandonment. When he
surrendered to the Father’s will and went forward with the gift of his life he
must have felt joy.
There is a clue here that
suffering and joy are not separate. It is from the suffering that Jesus
embraced with love for his Father and us that joy was released into the world.
We can suffer and if it is in love then we can have joy at the same time. I
always think of the woman I met many years ago when I used to preach informally
in people’s homes as part of a parish mission. She was confined to a wheel
chair with crippling rheumatoid arthritis. She couldn’t move much at all and it
was apparent that she had to be in pain. Yet, she radiated a look of joy.
I remember this
woman because to me she is a symbol, a sacrament, of what deep joy is. Joy is
not a stranger to suffering, in fact, it seems to flourish in suffering, but
only suffering born in love and that for us Christians is possible because of
our union with Jesus Christ who lives in us by the power of His Spirit. Joy is
possible and available and real in our own sufferings and urges us as we aware
of the sufferings of the world around us to do what we can to eliminate them.
Finally, what we
must do to ‘access’ this joy in the Spirit is to be with the Spirit in prayer.
We must take the time to immerse ourselves in prayer to have joy and to sustain
it. We must soak ourselves in prayer, be with, stay with the Spirit and ask for
this gift, especially when times are stressful and we are bearing great
suffering. There will always be some resistance to prayer, especially at times
of sorrow and stress, there is a temptation to abandon prayer and to think that
it is hopeless and futile. God as abandoned us. The truth is the opposite. At
these times all the more must we take the time, make the time for prayer. The
Spirit of Jesus will not disappoint you, but will tell you only to ‘come back
tomorrow for more.’
Yes, these are
stressful and sad times, joyless times, in many ways. Aside from the
disruptions of nature and the disruptions that we with human nature have caused,
there is always a need for joy and today there is a real need for joy, something
that many people don’t even know they need or for whom it is so foreign they
don’t know it is a gift waiting for them. Joy is offered to all of us today
through God’s Word in St. Paul and Isaiah. It certainly is always from the
Spirit of the living Christ and it is this Spirit that inspired Paul and Isaiah
to share their experience with us.
Remember to pray
to the Spirit, stay with the Spirit and ask for the gift of joy. It will be
given to you, you will feel it, though it is much deeper than a passing emotion,
and you will know in your heart that you have joy and other people will know
that your joy and long for it for themselves. J-O-Y, Jesus, Others, Yourself, a
way to think of ‘joy,’ Jesus is first and he gives you the joy of His Spirit and
your joy will radiate to others as you put them before yourself, because
selfishness diminishes joy. Then we sing with the carolers we will really know
the message of ‘Joy to the world.’
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fr. Michael M. Burke, OP
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