My Dear Friends,
For those of you who can remember back as far as last week, you will recall that I am doing a little series on the Fruits of the Spirit – Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self Control.
So, today we will embrace Joy. How lovely is that.
I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. Jn 15.11
Sometimes it is easier to say what something is not, rather than what it is. Joy is not necessarily, singing and dancing and paper hats and tinsel. It need not be all waving your hands and everybody smiling with their shiny teeth.
Joy can be very deep and quiet, and meaningful and beautiful. It can be about real happiness and exuberance, and it can be about a feeling of completeness, and a sense of being at one.
For me, Jesus words above in John’s Gospel are some of the best you will ever read.
Imagine the Joy that Jesus feels. He is not confused or distracted by an ego that falsely claims that he needs to be popular. He is able to discern and practice the will of his Father. He feels no guilt or shame, and bases everything on his own understanding of immense love. His joy is complete, and he shares it with us.
The fruit of you and I allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us and inspire us is that the incredible Joy of Christ will dwell within us.
It means that we can be comfortable in our own skin. We are not being judges and compared with others. We are not having to strive to strive for those things that the world tells us are so important. But rather we are temples of the Holy Spirit, and in our humility we know that we are loved more than we will ever imagine, and that we are invited to share eternity with God.
We also know that following the teaching of Jesus is the sure way to experience the most blessed of all feelings, and to recognise him in the words of scripture, in the breaking of the bread, in the lives of our fellow pilgrims, and in the awesomeness of creation – we can’t help but be filled with joy.
Let me give you some clues. When you wake up with your husband of wife the day after your wedding, and look in to their eyes, you feel Joy.
Those who are parents, when they hold their child, or see them laugh and scream with pleasure, you feel joy.
When something on your faith journey clicks, and you just know that God is with you. That is Joy.
When you realise that you are called by God to do a particular thing, and you try and do it – that is Joy.
When you know you are forgiven, and when you forgive – that is Joy.
When you finally understand that your ego is lying to you, and you are beautiful just the way that God made you, that is Joy.
When you trust that all shall be well. That is Joy.
When you feel complete, and are aware that although you know just a little, you have said Yes to God. That is joy.
Joy is a foretaste of the Kingdom of Heaven, it is about knowing we are in the presence of God, and it accepting this fruit that Jesus , with his Love and Joy long to dwell in our hearts.
I could go on for ever, and so could you, thinking about these things that make us Joyful. There are no limits other than the ones we set ourselves – and sometimes Joy manifests itself with that Singing and dancing and waving of arms after all!
Bless you, Bless you, Bless.
As ever,
Fr Marcus