Apr 01., 2018 / General, Soul Food, Updates and Activities

The True Meaning of Joy

The grace we ask for at this time of Easter season is “To be glad and rejoice intensely because of the great joy and glory of Christ our Lord” (#221 ). Two things should be noted of this grace.

First, the focus is on the great joy and glory of Christ. That joy gives us our own joy — not vice versa. Imagine seeing a young child playing, and feeling happy because that child is having fun. Our first experience of the resurrection is like that. That first state of joy carries us out of ourselves; we pray to be happy because we experience Christ’s joy and can enter into that joy.

Ignatius also recommends we ask for the grace to be intensely glad and to rejoice intensely. Not only do we need to ask for that grace and expect it, we also need to live as if we have received it. At this time, we avoid all those things that may cause us to lose that grace, and we seek those things that contribute to that state of being.

Joy is often equated with loud celebrations. True joy is not like that. Joy is the felt sense of being rooted in God’s love. It is calm and focused and deep.. Happiness occurs when my desires coincide with the energies around me, and I am affirmed in myself. Joy is acknowledging, in a self-conscious manner, my rootedness in a love and a life that is larger than me and that I know cares for me. In joy, I live out my awareness as the redeemed beloved of the Father; unlike in pleasure and excitement, I experience my selfhood solely in a physical way..

In this season, as we enter more and more deeply into the resurrection, we want to remain recollected so that we do not lose all the gifts we have been moving towards during our retreat (Holy Week). If we did so, we would be like those people who earn a small fortune working long, hard hours in remote areas, only to lose it in a frenzy of mind less self-indulgence when they return to the world they left behind.

The True Meaning of Joy

Make known to me your ways, LORD;

teach me your paths.

Guide me by your fidelity and teach me,

for you are God my savior,

for you I wait all the day long.