If you happen to go to New York City via the Lincoln Tunnel, you will be able to see a huge sign on the right side before entering the tunnel. The sign says “JOY” with no other decorations around it. I’m usually asleep on the bus by the time I get into the tunnel, but this time, I was awake enough to see that sign. For some reason, I was quite surprised to see the word “JOY.” I feel like this word is something that we often don’t use in our everyday lives. We usually ask, “Are you happy?”, not “Are you joyful?” We tend to talk more about happiness than joy. It may be because joy has more of a religious nuance than happiness.
When I run a spirituality group with patients in the hospital, happiness is never a good topic. First, these patients of mine aren’t so happy at the moment. Nobody wants to be in the hospital even though everyone knows it is for their benefit. But, joy is always the topic I would like to talk about with patients. I have a couple of reasons why I go with joy, not with happiness. First, if I ask my patients where they find happiness, they would most likely tell me, “outside the hospital, not here,” or where they find unhappiness. Just to begin with, they are quite unhappy. This is more of a practical reason why I avoid talking about happiness. The real reason is that this project of the pursuit of happiness is rather misleading as if this feeling of happiness is the only driving force of life. Joy, however, suggests something deeper and more essential. Joy is not simply an emotion but something that creates happiness even in the midst of our struggles. Not so much about the pursuit of happiness, but really about the pursuit of joy that matters more. So, I ask my patients, “Where do you find joy in your life?” And I would like to ask all of us gathered here, celebrating today as Gaudete Sunday or Rejoice Sunday with the rose candle lit in the Advent wreath, “Where do you find joy in your life?” There are no ready-made answers to this question. We can all think of what brings us joy in our lives. I had this patient whose answer was “spending time with my granddaughter gives me joy.” It can be your pet or someone who is dear to you. Now, let’s think about the source of that joy. What is the source of your joy? What or who creates that sense of joy? While everyone can have this sense of joy, for us Christians, this joy means something much more profound. For example, let’s think about this well-known Christmas carol, ‘Joy to the world.’ Isaac Watts wrote its lyrics in 1719. I will read you some parts of the carol: Joy to the World, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare Him room, Joy to the World, the Savior reigns! No more let sins and sorrows grow. Nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found. He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove the glories of His righteousness, and wonders of His love… It’s not too hard to see that this joy to whom Isaac Watts refers is Jesus. He brings joy to the world. He himself is the divine joy becoming human. He is the joy of God the Father. And he is the source of our joy. And today the Church bids us to rejoice as we are longing for the coming of Jesus the source of our joy during this holy season of Advent. St Paul urges us in our second lesson, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice...The Lord is near.” Having said that Jesus is the true source of our joy and we are called to rejoice, what is that we are rejoicing about? Are we simply rejoicing that Jesus is coming? If so, what joy does Jesus bring to us? Or how do we find joy in him? Saint John the Baptizer in today’s gospel lesson actually points us to the place where we can discover this joy that Jesus brings to us. In his rebuking voice to the crowds who are coming out for baptism, he basically tells them to prepare themselves to encounter the divine joy. The crowds come to Saint John to save themselves from God’s judgment. They know they have done something wrong in the eyes of God, which is why Saint John calls them, “You brood of vipers!” They come to him with no intention of repentance. In other words, they have no interest in facing and changing their self-serving lifestyles. They have no interest in admitting their wrong doings and changing their hearts. When they finally ask Saint John what to do about it, his response is quite simple. Change. Look at what you’ve been doing. Get out of yourself. Look out. Look who’s around you. All the advice that Saint John gives to the crowds, tax collectors, and soldiers are about caring for others, not taking advantage of others, and doing the right thing for others. So, if you’re looking for joy or pursuing joy in your life, look outside first. Get out of yourself. Look who’s around you. When you share yourself with others, there’s something so hardened inside your heart, now cracked open through which the Holy Spirit comes. In the faces of those you share yourself with, you see the face of Jesus who is the source of our joy. In the faces of those vulnerable, suffering, and oppressed, Jesus reveals his face to us. He shows his joy in their faces. It is us who might not see it, dismiss, and avoid it because its surroundings where it is found is too dark. But the divine joy has come to overcome darkness. Opening ourselves up to others by sharing ourselves, joy fills our hearts. In that joy, our eyes are mysteriously transformed to see the face of Jesus in others’ faces. Saint John’s teaching of looking outside oneself and looking at those suffering, on the other hand, calls us to look inside ourselves and look at our own suffering where we meet Jesus the divine joy. We don’t like to think about the dark moments of our lives. We would rather like to gloss over, cover up, and conceal as if there’s no darkness in us. Well, we know that doesn’t really work. It leaks. That darkness we so want to hide leaks time to time. This holy season of Advent in a way calls us to face that darkness. And in that darkness, Jesus comes. Saint John proclaims, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” Jesus clears what is clogged, burns what needs to be gone, and heals and restores what is wounded in your hearts. This is how Jesus brings joy to us. In this healing and restoring work of Jesus, we encounter and experience the divine joy. And this is the baptismal life you’re invited to live and rejoice. My friend, Our joy, God’s joy, the source of joy, Jesus of Nazareth is coming, not somewhere already bright but dark places where hope seems impossible. So look outside and inside. Look at yourself and others. May you find Jesus our joy with you, before you, behind you, in you, beneath you, above you, on your right, on your left, when you lie down, when you sit down, when you arise, in the heart of everyone who thinks of you, in the mouth of everyone who speaks of you, in every eye that sees you, in every ear that hears you. (paraphrased Saint Patrick’s blessing) In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. |
Paul"...life up your love to that cloud [of unknowing]...let God draw your love up to that cloud...through the help of his grace, to forget every other thing." Archives
January 2025
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