CHRISTIAN REJOICING
In my homily for this Laetare Sunday weekend, I spoke about the first reading from the second book of Chronicles and the optimistic lens by which the chronicler looked at salvation history. It is a reminder to us to really look at what lens we use when we look at both history and society around us. It is very easy at this time of pandemic to look through a dark lens by feeding our minds and souls with the fear and negativity that is so easily found at this time. We, however, are called to rejoice, to be grateful and I challenge you to really concentrate on how good God is and how much we truly have to be grateful and joyful about, even in difficult times.
Pope St. Paul VI says in Gaudete in Domino:
Technological society has succeeded in multiplying the opportunities for pleasure, but it has great difficulty in generating joy. For joy comes from another source. It is spiritual. Money, comfort, hygiene and material security are often not lacking; and yet boredom, depression and sadness unhappily remain the lot of many. These feelings sometimes go as far as anguish and despair, which apparent carefreeness, the frenzies of present good fortune and artificial paradises cannot assuage. Do people perhaps feel helpless to dominate industrial progress, to plan society in a human way?
A strong statement! I invite you to read the rest of this Apostolic exhortation as it speaks about true joy.
I also paraphrased a Jewish song that is sung at Passover called "Daiyenu", which means "it would have been enough". I will include here a reflection and Christian extension of the song, which is taken from a wonderful book called Spiritual Warfare and the Discernment of Spirits by Dan Burke. It is available for purchase on Amazon.
Daiyenu - It would have been enough
If He had rescued us from Egypt, but not punished the Egyptians,
It would have been enough (Daiyenu).
If He had punished the Egyptians, but not divided the Red Sea before us,
It would have been enough (Daiyenu).
If he had divided the Red Sea before us, but not supplied us in the desert for 40 years,
It would have been enough (Daiyenu).
If he had supplied us in the desert for 40 years, but not brought us to the land of promise,
It would have been enough (Daiyenu).
If he had brought us to the land of promise, but not made us a holy people,
It would have been enough (Daiyenu).
How much more, then, are we to be grateful to God for all these good things which he has indeed done for all of us!
As Christians who have the fullness of faith, we might also write our Daiyenu like this:
If He had redeemed me with His suffering and death, but not given His Body and Blood in the Eucharist,
It would have been enough.
If He had given me His Body and Blood in the Eucharist, but not filled me with the Holy Spirit,
It would have been enough.
If He had filled me with the Holy Spirit, but did not guide my life daily as His disciple,
It would have been enough.
If He did not guide my life daily as His disciple, but did not lovingly answer my prayers,
It would have been enough.
If He lovingly answered my prayers, but did not give me His promise to spend eternity with Him,
It would have been enough.
How much more, then, are we to be grateful to God for all these good things which he has indeed done for all of us!
(From: Spiritual Warefare and the Discernment of Spirits. Dan Burke. Manchester: Sophia Institute Press, 2019, pp. 72-73)
Finally, I leave you with the thought that we should always remember close to our faith in order to have true joy. Pain and suffering should not be seen as the opposite to joy, but rather something that can make joy even more beatiful and fruitful. The important thing is ensure that pain and suffering do not lead to an abandonment of faith. St. John Henry Newman once wrote about our human tendency to have delusions about our faith. he said: "In short, they are in a dream, from whcih nothing could have saved them except deep humility and nothing will ordinarily rescue them except sharp affliction."
From even the deepest chasm, the darkest night can grow beauty and joy if we have but faith.
