Villa La Paz Newsletter June 2021
Joy:
1 a very glad feeling; happiness; great pleasure; delight;
2 anything causing such a feeling
3 the expression or showing of such feeling
Joy is essential to the spiritual life. Whatever we may think or say about God, when we are not joyful, our thoughts and words cannot bear fruit. Jesus reveals to us God’s love so that His joy may become ours and that our joy may become complete. Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing-sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death-can take that love away. Joy is not the same as happiness. We can be unhappy about many things, but joy can still be there because it comes from the knowledge of God’s love for us. Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. It is a choice based on the knowledge that we belong to God and have found in God our refuge and our safety and that nothing, not even death, can take God away from us.
Henri J.M. Nouwen
Joy isn’t what happens when life goes perfectly. It’s what happens when you know you are loved perfectly, even when life is a mess.
Chris Stefanick
from the book Living Joy
The Divine Spirit does not reside in any except the joyful heart.
The Talmud
God and the little child continued their walk along the seashore. The child enjoyed these walks as they gave him an opportunity to converse with God concerning things that puzzled him or that he did not understand. After a period of silence the little boy told God about a visit he made with his mother to an elderly, ill woman and her husband.
“God,” said the little boy, “my mother and I visited an old woman and her husband two days ago. My mother often visits persons in our church who are sick or need help for whatever reason. The woman has cancer, is in pain, and the treatment is not helping her, and yet, the woman and her husband were smiling as they talked to us. Their faces were bright and seemed to shine. They looked happy. How could they be happy when the woman is in such pain and will die soon?”
God answered, “I am sure that they are not happy about the woman’s illness. Her husband knows that she will not be with him for long and his wife is concerned about his being alone. What you saw in their smiling and shining faces was not happiness but joy. They know that I love them, that they belong to me and that I will always be with them, and that soon they will be together with Me in an eternal love. Nothing will ever separate me from them. They know that and it gives them joy.”
“Then why isn’t everyone joyful?” questioned the little boy. “It seems to me that if everyone were joyful the world would be a different place. People would realize that you are our Father, that we therefore are your children, equal before You as brothers and sisters. There would be no hatred, envy, poverty, wars or divisions. I don’t understand why others do not realize this,” said the child, almost in tears.
God answered, “Joy has to be chosen, embraced and lived and it can only exist in the hearts of people who trust in my love for them and realize that my love does not depend on anything else but that they are my children, that I loved them before the world began and will love them in eternity.”
“God,” the little boy said, “help me to never forget what you have just said.”
As I write this, I can hear our children in the patio below playing soccer. Our patio is surrounded on three sides by glass. I want to tell them to stop before I hear glass crashing to the floor but their joy at being able to play despite their illnesses and disabilities is heartening and inspiring and joy is never to be suppressed.
What would the world be like if joy penetrated every aspect of our interactions with one another? It would indeed be, as the little boy mentioned in his conversation with God, a different place. Dare we hope for such a world, where love abounds and the realization that we are all brothers and sisters of the same loving Father puts an end to the divisions that separate us? Again, we have to look at the children, as Our Lord so often tells us. He repeatedly enjoins us to become like children if we want to share in His kingdom. They come into the world not knowing hatred, envy, violence, or division. What they learn they learn from us and it is incumbent on us to foster in them the Spirit of joy. We can only do this if we embrace the Spirit of joy and live it daily.
You have called us to be one, to live in unity and harmony, and yet we are divided: race from race, faith from faith, rich from poor, old from young, neighbor from neighbor. O Lord, by whose cross all enmity is brought to an end, break down the walls that separate us, tear down the fences of indifference and hatred; forgive us the sins that divide us, free us from pride and self-seeking, overcome our prejudices and fears, give us courage to open ourselves to others; by the power of Your Spirit, make us one. Amen.
World Council of Churches Assembly,
Vancouver, 1983
As always we are grateful to you for supporting our children and the children of the world. They are to be treasured, nurtured, and instilled with joy and peace. The future of our world depends on them.
God’s peace and joy to all of you.
