During this Christmas season it is an essential spiritual practice to nurture Joy. Paul has told us that joy is connected with love (cf. Gal 5:22). Therefore, it cannot be a self-centered experience, the result of a disordered love. True joy participates in the kingdom of God, which St. Paul says “is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom 14:17).
Joy is a matter of justice, which consists in conformity to the will of God, obedience to his laws and personal friendship with Him. Apart from friendship with God there is no true joy. Sin is particularly a source of sadness, because it is a deviation of the soul away from God. The Holy Spirit removes sin and sadness and gives joy, the joy that we see blossoming in the Gospel, especially at Christmas.
The Gospel is an invitation to joy and an experience of true and profound joy. At the annunciation, Mary was invited: “Rejoice, full of grace” (Lk 1:28). Mary’s joy is realized with the coming of the Holy Spirit, who was announced to Mary as the reason for rejoicing.
At the visitation, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and with joy, participating naturally and supernaturally in the rejoicing of her son who was still in her womb: “The infant in my womb leaped for joy” (Lk 1:44). Elizabeth perceived her son’s joy and showed it, but according to the evangelist, it is the Holy Spirit who filled both of them with this joy.
Let us pray to the Holy Spirit that he may always enkindle in us a desire for the good things of heaven and enable us one day to enjoy their fullness: “Grant us virtue and its reward, grant us a holy death, give us eternal joy.” Amen.
Fr Thomas Weise, St Catherine of Siena, Catholic Church
Reader Comments(0)