Joy: The Fulfillment of All Desire

Today we celebrate ‘Gaudete Sunday.’ Gaudete means ‘Rejoice.’[i] We often see our clergy wearing rose-colored vestments and we light a rose-colored candle in the Advent wreath, the candle of joy. As we journey with Our Lady towards Jesus' Nativity, we pause to celebrate the joy of this expectation.

In our first reading, Isaiah promises that when the Lord’s Servant comes to vindicate his people, he will strengthen the weak and calm the hearts of those who are frightened. His salvation will include opening the eyes of the blind, causing the deaf to hear, the lame to leap, and the mute to sing. They will enter Zion singing. The Lord will crown his people with everlasting joy. Sorrow and morning will flee, when the Lord pours out his joy and gladness upon his people. 

Joy is an affection of the soul, closely linked with the emotion of delight or the satisfaction of our desires. Joy is also a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and an effect of the theological virtue of charity. Psychologically the emotion of joy is a feeling of delight or extreme gladness. Even psychologists view joy as an “exultation of the spirit arising from a sense of well-being or satisfaction.”[ii] Joy can be a passive sense of tranquility or an active desire to share this feeling with others.  

We can distinguish between natural joy in created things and spiritual joy which comes from a reflection on the Divine good[iii] which arises from hope. [iv] Although spiritual joy arises from hope it is also reflexive, when we are joyful, we experience greater hope. We can also experience supernatural joy as a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22, Romans 15:13).

As I reflect on the notion of joy, I can ask myself do I experience joy in my faith? I need to be honest with myself. A joyless faith is defective. God promises us joy!

I don’t know about you, but ‘Gaudete Sunday’ is a good time to examine my heart on my experience of joy.

Our Gospel for the Third Sunday of Advent (Matthew 11:2-11) continues to highlight John the Baptist. St Matthew tells us that when John the Baptist heard from prison, about the mighty works and miracles that Jesus was performing, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” (11:3). 

We each need to ask ourselves this same question. In today’s world, we cannot assume that everyone understands who Jesus is. Is Jesus the one? Do we truly believe he has come to satisfy our desires?

In answer to John the Baptist’s question, Jesus understands himself as the spirit-anointed Servant from Isaiah (11 and 61). Jesus answers John’s disciples by pointing out his fulfilment of a number of key passages from Isaiah about the Suffering Servant. Both our first reading from Isaiah 35 and our Psalm (146), highlight a number of these fulfillments. Jesus has come to proclaim a new age of the Spirit (Isaiah 61:2), a year of the Lord’s favor (Isaiah 61:2). This coming of the Spirit will bring God’s people comfort, joy and gladness of heart (Isaiah 29:19; 35:10; 61:1). 

Jesus’ mission from the Father is to be the fulfillment of all desire. This is joy! While it includes natural joy, he is primarily wanting to inspire spiritual or supernatural joy in our hearts by relationship with him.

The coming of the Spirit will bring about a New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31) and a New Law written on our hearts. The Holy Spirit now guides us from the heart, rather than merely by following an external checklist of rules. God’s forgiveness is not a contractual matter. In fact, it is impossible to earn God’s favor by being good. 

Through God’s infinite mercy, we all become adopted sons and daughters of God through Jesus Christ. We are brought into communion with Christ and the Holy Spirit especially though Baptism and Holy Communion (Ephesians 3:20). God’s act of forgiveness invites us into a relationship with him, or into communion with him.

How can we build this relationship and open our hearts to receive joy?

Many saints have told us about the power of prayer. St. John Chrysostom says that “Prayer is the place of refuge for every worry, a foundation for cheerfulness, a source of constant happiness, a protection against sadness.”  

Likewise, our namesake, St. Thérèse of Lisieux notes, "It is the spirit of gratitude which draws down upon us the overflow of God's grace, for no sooner have we thanked Him for one blessing than He hastens to send us ten additional favors in return.”  

We must begin with the realization that God loves us, and we are his children. He desires our happiness. He will not necessarily protect us from suffering but will ultimately bring us joy. 

Yet we might ask how can we say God desires to give us joy if we end up suffering? How can Jesus be the fulfillment of all desire and yet allow us to suffer. Perhaps only those who have accompanied Jesus in the mystery of suffering can rightly bear witness to this joy. He is with us always. We are joined to him in our sufferings. He brings meaning to our sufferings.

As humans, we learn to trust in little steps. Perhaps we can begin by truthfully asking ourselves. Am I happy? Have I found joy in this life? On a spiritual level, have I tried to find joy and peace in my prayer with Jesus? I would invite you today to take a small step on this journey. 

I believe that Jesus came to bring us joy and the fulfillment of all desire! This is his promise.

I challenge each one of you to prove him wrong. If your heart is not yet ready to trust in him completely … take the first step! Open your heart in prayer. Pour out all your desires before him and let him enter your heart. 

For a longer and more detailed version of this post see The Joy of the Gospel.

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NOTES:
[i] The original Latin introit or entrance antiphon for this Mass, sings the words of Philippians 4:4 -- Gaudete in Domino semper: “Rejoice in the Lord always.”
[ii] APA Dictionary of Psychology, https://dictionary.apa.org/joy
[iii] St Thomas, STh., II-II q.9 a.4 resp.
[iv] STh., II-II q.20 a.4 obj. 2

 

Joyful Expectation

This Advent, as we journey with Mary to Bethlehem, and she approaches her time to give birth, we become part of her family.  Together with Our Lady we wait in joyful expectation of her son’s birth. This is the meaning of Advent. It is a joyful time of preparation and waiting for the coming of the Messiah, the King of David.

Our first reading from Isaiah (Isaiah 11:1–10) is hopefully familiar to those who have been through Confirmation as it is our source for the sevenfold gifts of the Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord (cf. Isaiah 11:2). Notice, however, that even when discussing the fear of the Lord, Isaiah tells that the Spirit of Lord resting on us will bring us joy or delight. Isaiah tells us, “And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.” We are not to think of God looking down on us disapprovingly with a big stick saying, “be good, or else.”

God desires to impart his good news to us. He offers us happiness and delight. To receive this spirit-filled joy, however, we must allow our hearts to be prepared and to accompany him as disciples. This requires our cooperation with his grace. 

God calls each one of us be good for goodness’ sake. We must believe that God loves us and desires to share with us what is best for each one of us. It is only through God’s goodness that we discover true happiness and fulfillment, and genuine freedom. This comes about as the Holy Spirit changes from us within.

To understand our Gospel passage (Matthew 3:1–12) we must enter the world of the Bible. Today when we hear the word ‘Gospel’, we immediately think of the four “Gospels” of the New Testament and when we say ‘Scriptures’ we think of a Bible with 72 books. At the time of Jesus, the clever idea of creating a stack of rectangular pages and then sewing them together on the spine, is something that was still unknown for centuries. Our reading from Isaiah would have been on a scroll 145 feet long!

Fragments of the Great Isaiah Scroll from Qumran

When the earliest Christians preached the good news or the “gospel” about Jesus Christ, they did so from the Old Testament Scriptures. The very term “preaching the good news” comes from the important second part of Isaiah 40–66 (especially 40:9; 52:7; 60:6; 61:1). The early Christians often used Scripture texts concerning the good news about Jesus, citing from Isaiah and the Psalms.

The second part of Isaiah (40–66) begins by talking a about a variety of ‘servants’ who will call all nations and peoples to return to Jerusalem and to submit to God’s reign and rule or kingdom on the earth. Soon, however Isaiah moves on to discuss one special Suffering Servant (Isaiah 42:1–4; 49:1–6; 50:4–11; and 52:13–53:12). Later in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is the Suffering Servant who “took away our infirmities and bore our diseases” (Matt 8:17 citing Isa 53:4). Matthew identifies the mission of Jesus with Isaiah 42:1–4 (Matthew 12:17–21).

Even our first reading from Isaiah 11 refers in part to the coming Messiah, who is “a shoot … from the stump of Jesse” upon whom the Spirit of the Lord rests. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus identifies his mission with the sprit-filled Servant found in Isaiah 61 (Luke 4:14-30). Later in his mission as the Lord’s Servant, Jesus shares the promise of the Holy Spirit with his all his disciples (Acts 1:5, 2:4).

With this background in mind, Matthew tells us that a final messenger or forerunner will come to prepare the way for the Messiah. “John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Matthew 3:1). John’s message of repentance is the same message that Jesus will preach at the beginning of his ministry (Matthew 4:17).

The ministry of John the Baptist was foretold in Isaiah 40:3–5,

It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said:

A voice of one crying out in the desert,
Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths (3:3).

John the Baptist’s clothing and strange eating behavior identified him as a prophet like Elijah. The Catechism notes, “St. John the Baptist is the Lord’s immediate precursor or forerunner, sent to prepare his way. “Prophet of the Most High,” John surpasses all the prophets, of whom he is the last.” (CCC 523). John the Baptist’s birth and martyrdom are part of the Advent Liturgy’s presentation of ancient joyful expectancy of the Messiah (CCC 524).

John administered a baptism of repentance in which people acknowledged their sins and began to live a new life. Although perhaps experiencing a similar the process of conversion, Christian Baptism instituted by Jesus, was completely different from John’s earlier baptism of repentance. John acknowledges this in our Gospel reading. He notes that Jesus will baptize the Holy Spirit and fire (3:11). In Christian Baptism, we receive the grace of the forgiveness of sins through Jesus sacrifice on the cross (Acts 2:38), by the Holy Spirit and are joined to Christ and made part of his body (Galatians 3:27; Roman 6:5) and are adopted into his family.

Once again, the season of Advent is a time to celebrate the ancient family traditions of Jesus and recount the story of salvation history found in Sacred Scripture. Let us prayerfully join once again in Mary’s joyful expectation of the birth of the Messiah. We must prepare our hearts to receive him.

As we do so, let us pray with the church,

Lord our God,
help us to prepare for the coming of Christ your Son.
May he find us waiting, eager in joyful prayer.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.– Amen.