Advent Joy

11 December 2009 - 5:21pm — joyce

Lets listen to the words of joy in todays Mass:

Entrance Antiphon: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice! The Lord is near. -Philippians 4:4,5

First Reading: Shout for joy, O daughter Zion! Sing joyfully, O daughter Jerusalem! -Zephaniah 3:14

Responsorial Psalm: Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel. -Isaiah 12:6

Second Reading: Brothers and Sisters: Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice! Philippians 4:4

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Why this URGING to joy? Arent we already joyful? With the decorations and countless Christmas parties and graduations and celebrations? Look at all the joy! Sometimes it feels superficial.

Yet, these words of Scripture remain and call us deeper. We simultaneously see great suffering in this time of year. People hurt deeply during festive times, and during Christmas especially.

Sometimes, at least in my life, I jump for the superficial joy at hand without going through the darkness that leads to the joy on the other side. Joy, as C.S. Lewis reminds us, is a surprise that comes upon us from outside. It sneaks up on us and finds us when we forget ourselves and are least looking for it. Caryll Houselander had this to say about joy and Advent in her classic, The Reed of God:

The truth is that they are too impatient to wait for the season of Advent in sorrow to run its course; a seed contains all the life and loveliness of the flower, but it contains it in a little hard black pip of a thing whichever the glorious sun will not enliven unless it is buried under the earth.

There must be a period of gestation before anything can flower.

If only those who suffer would be patient with their early humiliations and realize that Advent is not only the time of growth but also of darkness and hiding and waiting, they would trust, and trust rightly, that Christ is growing in their sorrow, and in due season all the fret and strain and tension of it will give place to a splendor of peace.

The same with joy; we sometimes accuse young people of grasping joy and not realizing their blessings and not being made bigger and kinder and lovelier as they ought to be by all delight.

Joy also must be allowed to gestate.

Everyone should open his heart very wide to joy, should welcome it and let it be buried very deeply in him; and he should wait the flowering of it with patience. Of course, the first ecstasy will pass, but because in real joy Christ grows in us, the time will come when joy will put forth shoots and the richness and sweetness of the person who rejoiced will be Christs flowering

We ought to let everything grow in us, as Christ grew in Mary. And we ought to realize that in everything that does grow quietly in us, Christ grows.

A joyful Advent to you!