Road Map To Joy

 Who of us would not want to be more joyful? Who of us does not want a heart that is cheerful and peaceful?

Advent is a time for us to renew our joy in the Lord. In today’s second reading, Saint Paul gives us a step-by-step guide on how to have more joy and peace in our hearts.

The first thing Saint Paul tells us is: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I say it again: rejoice!” In telling us to rejoice, Saint Paul is teaching us that joy is a decision. It is not something that happens to us. It is not an emotion we feel when everything is going our way. Rather, we decide to be joyful. No matter what is going on around us, no matter what we are feeling inside ourselves, we take on a joyful attitude because we believe this world is good and because we believe God is good.

When things are not going our way, when we are hurting and when we can’t imagine how things could get any worse, we can still choose to be joyful. This doesn’t mean that we ignore or deny our real sadness or anger. Rather, our joy is an assurance that God will bring good out of whatever difficulties we are facing. Joy is not an emotion we feel but a decision we make to believe that life is good and worthwhile because God made us for a purpose.

The next thing Saint Paul tells us is: “Your kindness should be known to all”. We experience joy when we are kind to others. Our hearts are made to love. There is no better way to fill our hearts with joy than to be generous.

Many of us have had the experience of feeling down in the dumps or out of sorts. We look for some way to make ourselves feel better by indulging ourselves. Though we might feel better for a time, the empty feeling inevitably returns. Sometimes we can get stuck blaming others for our sadness and we can become resentful. However, when we stop focusing on ourselves and reach out to others, we find our attitude changing. We might volunteer at a soup kitchen or visit a friend in the hospital. Knowing that we have made a difference in someone’s day fills us with joy. It is when we decide to be kind to others - not when we wait for others to be kind to us - that we find joy.

Saint Paul goes on to say: “The Lord is near”. Our joy is ultimately rooted in God and His love for us. When we realize how near He is to us, how He holds us in love and mercy throughout the day, we cannot help but be joyful.

Joy ultimately comes from reflecting on God’s love for us. That is why we can be joyful in any situation. No matter what happens to us, God is near. Often He is steering us clear of danger and trouble. Still, when He allows evil to happen to us, we know that it is so that He can bring good out of it. This is also why no one can take our joy away from us. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Therefore, nothing can take joy away from those who are convinced that the Lord is near.

Finally, Saint Paul says: “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.” Now, Saint Paul is not speaking here about the kind of anxiety and depression that people with mental illness experience. Rather, he is talking about the worries we face in our day-to-day life. When we are consumed with worry, it can often rob us of our joy.

Saint Paul encourages us to offer our worries up to God. If there’s nothing we can do about a situation, God can handle it. It might not go the way we’d prefer, but we can rest assured that we’ll be okay in the end because God is in charge. This is a decision we make in the face of life’s challenges to believe that our Heavenly Father will always provide for us.

When we make our prayer to God, we do so with thanksgiving. There is no room for bitterness in a heart that is grateful. The more we stop during the day to count our blessings, even if it is just to thank God for the rain that nourishes the plants, joy takes root in the core of our being. We are reminded that life is good and we are reassured that everything will turn out fine in the end. Cultivating a heart that is mindful of God’s many blessings goes a long way to making us joyful people.

Pope Francis has made joy a major theme of his pontificate. In one of his daily homilies, he said

The Christian’s identity card is joy, the Gospel’s joy, the joy of having been chosen by Jesus, saved by Jesus, regenerated by Jesus; the joy of that hope that Jesus is waiting for us, the joy that - even with the crosses and sufferings we bear in this life - is expressed in another way, which is peace in the certainty that Jesus accompanies us, is with us.

During Advent, we express our faith that the Lord is near. This reality fills our heart with joy. It is a joy that the world cannot take away because it is rooted in the faithfulness of our God who loves us unconditionally. Confident in the love and goodness of our God, let us be thankful and let us be kind. Then our joy will be known to all and begin to spread into a world that is hungry for hope.

If we do that, this Christmas will be a time of real joy for us - not the sentimental, nostalgic kind that the world settles for - but true joy which rejoices in a God who became man so that He could be near us.