Finding Joy in God (Gaudete Sunday B)

Christian life, we have to face it, is quite demanding.  We speak of high cost of discipleship, of carrying our crosses each day, of self-denial and self-sacrificing love among others.  Without the correct disposition, our life in the Lord can end up as listless, unhappy and exhausting commitment of self-giving.  In fact, stern faces and humorless outlook in life are not uncommon among many serious Christians we meet.  Needless to say, this joyless witnessing is a source of discouragement for others to take Christian faith seriously. How can we be attractive when there’s no joy in the life we lead?

Joy is an essential disposition of a true disciple.  The demands of Christian life have to be carried out with a joyful heart.  Gaudete Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent, is meant to remind us of the fact that always God’s presence in our life is a cause for rejoicing.  All Advent biblical figures attest to this. We hear Isaiah exclaims, in the first reading (Is 61:1-2, 10-11): “I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul…” (v. 10).  Mary’s magnificat, too, is read as the responsorial psalm and we hear Mary exults: “My being proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit finds joy in God my savior” (Lk 1: 46).  We recall too, though not in today’s readings, John the Baptist leaping with joy in her mother’s womb as Elizabeth and Mary greeted each other.

Do we find joy in God? Allow me to offer three ways of finding joy in God—the joy of gratitude, the joy of ministry, the joy of surrender.

The Joy of Gratitude.  There is joy in thanksgiving. No doubt about it.  St. Paul, in our second reading, tells the Thessalonians to rejoice and pray always and give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thes 5: 16). Christian life may be demanding but even before we are faced with the demands of our commitments to the Lord, God has favored us first as “He has looked with favor on his lowly servant”, Mary, that she may be called blessed in all ages.  Isaiah’s joy too is one of gratitude as he attests: “for He has clothed me with a robe of salvation, and wrapped me in a mantle of justice” (Is. 61: 10).

When God asks our commitment, he sees to it first that he endows us with the gifts required for fulfilling what he expects of us.  When we see it this way, gratitude then is our first response to God’s goodness.  Whatever we do for God, we do it with the joy of a grateful heart.    

How often, deep in our hearts, we demand from God our reward for being good in this life! This we expect with a stern sense of entitlement oblivious of the fundamental fact that we have been blessed already prior to our achievements and that we are good only because God has been good to us first.  

Advent allows us to rejoice because of the goodness of God in our lives.  An important Advent preparation then is cultivating a grateful heart, one that truly brings forth joy, as it recognizes God’s favor on us.

The Joy of Ministry.  There is joy in serving.  We sure feel physically tired after serving, yet at the end of the day, we wonder why a serene sense of deep satisfaction invigorates us from within.  I believe it is the quiet and gentle power of joy that revitalizes us.

I once worked in a rural and mountainous parish with an aging missionary as my parish priest.  Because I was young, nimble and quick, all ministering that involved going through the rough roads and dangerous trails of the countryside were understandably left to my care.  Always upon my return from these difficult areas, the kind old missionary would come to me with much concern in his face making sure I was fine.  Sometimes, for one reason or another, I could not make it to the barrio, he would volunteer to go as we were left with no choice.  As he returned home, I would meet him to see if he was fine.  On those days, he surely looked tired and older but, to my amazement, a lot happier.  He would look at me beaming with a joyful smile and say, “I’m back and I’m great!”

Such is the joy of serving.  This I believe is the same joy that exudes and makes the face of Mother Teresa beautiful—more beautiful than the fresh and pampered faces of those hailed Miss Universe.

Do we find joy as we serve in our ministry?  In our professions?

The Joy of Surrender.  There is joy in trusting and in believing in the faithfulness of God.  This is the joy of placing our lives at the hands of the faithful God. 

Sometimes, in this result-oriented society we are living now, we can become control freaks.  We spend a lot of our energy making sure that everything goes according to our wishes and plans.  We begin to become strict, intolerant, stiff, unbending.  We lose our flexibility and spontaneity.  All because we want to see our design successfully materialized, our set goals met and our plans well-executed.  Failures and adversities have no place in our lives.  Yet, the fact is, they do happen.  Not everything goes according to our design.  Hence, our contemporary life is marked by stress and anxiety.

To surrender to God is liberating.  Filipinos are said to be the happiest people despite formidable adversities.  I suspect this is because we know how to place our lives into the hands of God.  “Bahala na!” in its positive sense expresses our trust in God’s providential care.  We trust that in God’s wisdom, everything will fit together, everything will make sense.  So we learn how to let go and let God and get a life.

In our Christian life it is not our own will but God’s will that matters most, not our own design but God’s design.  Advent reminds us that like the prophets and Mary who listened to God’s will and trusted in God’s fidelity, we too may do well to surrender to God.  There’s so much joy in it.  Promise.