Easter Joy

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

“Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia! For the Lord has truly risen” (Prayer, Regina Coeli).

Easter joy is an important part of our Christian vocation. We are called to be joyful because the Resurrection has taken place. “The Lord is truly risen, alleluia.”

Therefore, that means that our lives can be full of joy, of hope, of optimism. That optimism, that joy, that hope can lead us to fulfill all sorts of things.

I heard a story over the weekend of a young fellow who used to have sight, but then through some illness or some accident, he lost his sight. But he recently climbed Mount Longonot, hanging on to the backpack of the person who took him.

And he told her, Now we have to go a bit slower here...now there are rocks so you need to lift your leg a bit higher. But eventually he got to the top.

A month later he climbed another mountain. Now he is teaching other young kids who are blind how to use a computer.

You hear these stories and it fires you with enthusiasm and optimism to overcome the difficulties and problems, and also to thank God for our blessings.

Every day we have many reasons to give thanks to God, to lift up our hearts and souls and minds in thanksgiving for the gifts that God has given to us, for the blessings, for all the things that we perhaps don't appreciate.

Si scires donum Dei–“If you knew the gift of God,” we’re told in Scripture. Sometimes we don't know the gift of God or we don't appreciate it.

St. Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, Rejoice!’ (Phil. 4:4).

“Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matt. 5:4).

Our Lord says, “Your sadness will be turned into joy” (John 16:20). It's one of the lessons of the Paschal Triduum: the sorrow of Good Friday, of Holy Saturday, but then the joy of Easter Sunday.

Truly our sadnesses are turned into joy. The things that might bring us down for a certain moment, with time we may see the hand of God there. It can change our whole opinion.

St. Paul talks about being “patient in tribulation and joyful in hope” (Rom. 12:12). It’s pretty much the message of Easter.

Lord, help me to be more patient in the little tribulations that you may send me.

Mother Angelica of EWTN says if God sends us tribulations, it's because He wants us to tribulate. But then we know that those tribulations can be turned into joy—joyful in hope.

Our Lady's hope kept the whole hope of the Church alive, and the faith of the Church alive during those days.

Now they look forward to all the great things that are to come. “Was not our heart burning within us as he talked to us along the way?” (Luke 24:32).

They recognized the presence of Christ through the joy that was in their hearts. It's one of the infallible signs of God's presence: joy, cheerfulness.

“A smile is a light in the window of our face that tells others that our heart is at home.”

It's in the things of God. It's in the things of the apostolate. It's in the eternal wedding feast.

If we lose our joy, it's a sign we have lost a bit of the presence of God, and we need to try and recover it as soon as possible.

St. Josemaría liked to say that “sadness is an ally of the enemy.” Sometimes Our Lord was sad, but He wasn't dominated by sadness. It was a passing sadness.

We're human; there are certain situations that make us a bit sad—the loss of a loved one, a piece of bad news, a disappointment.

But very quickly we recover our cheerfulness. We see that's not the full story; there's another side. Maybe the finger of God is here. We make some act of faith that God will bring good out of this situation.

Our joy is meant to be a permanent state, because the fact that we are children of God is a permanent state, the fact that we're an Easter people.

We're not a Good Friday people, because the Resurrection changed everything, and to be with Christ is the source of our joy. We share His triumph, His victory.

We have a mission to bring the good tidings of great joy to all the people—enthusiasm for our mission. We know with confidence that it will be accomplished.

“Not a jot or iota of the law will pass away ever” (Matt. 5:18).

“I will be with you all days even until the end of the world” (cf. Matt. 28:20).

If we try to love and embrace the cross a little more each day, we'll be a more joyful people.

One time, St. Josemaría was having an important cardinal to lunch. As always, he liked to give his guests something special that they liked. He learned that this cardinal liked something called a Russian salad. I don't know if there exists a Russian salad or if they eat salad in Russia. But the story, as I heard it, was a Russian salad.

A sister of ours was asked to prepare a Russian salad. This was a special request from St. Josemaría, so she spent an awful lot of time and effort and energy and the whole morning preparing this Russian salad.

The salad was tossed very well. She was sanctifying her work, so it was done with great intensity and great attention. Then it was decorated with a cherry and a little olive, and it looked beautiful. Everything was perfect.

Then the cardinal came to lunch and they had the first course. Then it was time for the second course which was the Russian salad. But there was a delay and a delay and a delay.

Finally, St. Josemaria got up from the dining room table, went into the servery to see what was happening, into the kitchen, and found our sister there in tears and the Russian salad all over the floor.

She went to take the dish off the sideboard at a certain moment to serve it and it fell. It was all over the floor, and now she was crying. Her tears were now seasoning the Russian salad.

St. Josemaría said to her, “My daughter, I will allow you to cry twice more in your life: once when your mother dies and once when I die.” In other words, it's no use crying over spilled Russian salads.

We keep our joy in all situations. We look for a solution, open a tin and solve the problem, and get on with life. But we don't stand around crying about the things that have happened to us.

Our joy comes from our abandonment in the hands of Our loving Heavenly Father, who has told us, “If you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him?” (Matt. 7:11).

In living a plan of life, taking care of our norms, and doing apostolate, we need to be full of joy because we are close to the source of all joy.

Christ is with us, who is risen. “Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, for the Lord has truly risen.”

True virtue is pleasantly joyful.

God's joy appears 300 times in Scripture. The frequency of a word in Scripture is often an indication of its importance.

Whenever we lose our joy momentarily, an Act of Thanksgiving can help us to restore our joy.

Thank you, Lord, for this difficulty, for this cross. Maybe I don't understand it, or I don't know why this has happened, but I know your Will is here somewhere.

When the Holy Family experienced rejection in Bethlehem, all the doors closed in their faces (Luke 2:7); when they had to flee to Egypt (Matt. 2:13), I don't imagine them with long faces, or complaining, or wishing things were different, but from a loving acceptance of the Will of God.

St. Josemaría says, “Abandonment to the Will of God is the secret of happiness on earth” (Josemaría Escrivá, The Way, Point 766).

Our joy and cheerfulness can be an indication of our self-surrender, of how we have given ourselves, of how we are living this moment.

The journey from Good Friday to the Resurrection also teaches us that the greatest joys in life are purchased at the cost of some sacrifice.

Sometimes Our Lord asks us for a lot, but it's because He wants to give us a lot.

We have to try and joyfully give Him those things. “If this is what you want Lord, then, I want it also” (J. Escrivá, The Way, Point 762).

I'm ready for that sacrifice. I'm ready to change my plans. I'm ready not to have or do that thing that maybe my heart yearns for or would like very much.

If it’s not your Will, then it's not my way. I find my peace and my joy and my serenity in accepting your Will in this particular moment.

Our joy is constant, heroic. Nothing can undermine it. We have a smiling asceticism.

Our Lady and St. Joseph experienced all sorts of contradictions. But we find they are so calm. There's not a word of complaint.

After the Crucifixion, we imagine Our Lady on Holy Saturday with a great calm, even though the apostles have run away, or most of them, because there's hope there.

She's kept “treasuring all these things carefully in her heart” (cf. Luke 2:19, 51). So she knows there's something coming. There's the joy of that hope, which is fully realized then on Easter Sunday morning.

Looking at ourselves, we might have very few reasons for joy and cheerfulness. But looking at Him, we find every reason to make those Acts of Thanksgiving, to have that smile in the window of our faces, to find joy in the cross.

When Don Javier Echevarría came to Hong Kong, he wrote on the back of many little prayer cards, Lux in Cruce, gaudium in Cruce, requies in Cruce–Light in the Cross, joy in the Cross, rest in the Cross.

We find our rest there. Our joy is not a function of circumstances, or the fact that our team may have won the league, or other passing things.

Sometimes there can be a very joyful occasion, but there might be some sadness there also. But then that passes. It gives way to a deeper joy.

We build our joy on our faith, faith in the love of God for us, that He's looking after us. It’s not something physiological, depending on how we slept last night, or the state of our chemistry, or other things.

We can find great joy at beginning again, starting over. Easter Monday and Easter Tuesday must have been a whole new beginning, for Our Lady and the other apostles with her will begin to spread this joy, and begin to grasp it a little more. It takes until Pentecost when the apostles fully grasp that joy.

Joy is a gift of the Holy Spirit, one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit in our soul (Gal 5:22). It’s something that other people should notice, because we are the prodigal child (Luke 15:11-32) many times each day, coming back to the tabernacle, turning again to Our Lord with our presence of God.

We rediscover that joy. With the passage of time, we come to realize more and more that created things are powerless to satisfy our hunger for happiness. We have been made for happiness, and in our Christian vocation, we have found “the pearl of great price” (Matt. 13:45-46).

That person who found the pearl of great price, in their joy; the treasure in the field (Matt. 13:44-46), in their joy—they went off and sold all that they had and they bought that field, because this was the thing that was worth having. This was the greatest treasure.

Joy is something wonderful. It's one of nature's greatest medicines. God wants us to spread that joy around us: to our friends, to our relatives, to the whole world, so that they learn how to find their joy in the living Christ, in the risen Christ.

Joy is always something healthy. We can marvel at the people God has brought us to live with, the example we find around us, people trying to lead holy lives, the inspiring things that God helps us to know, like that story of the blind young fellow climbing the mountain.

If other people can do things like that, what must I be willing to do? What a great blessing to have the gift of sight! Thank you, Lord, for reminding me that I have this gift.

I might not always have this gift, but while I have this gift and this talent, help me to use it as well as I can to give you glory. Thank you every day of my life for the wonderful things I can do because I can see.

When we are joyful, it means we are thinking of others. We are forgetting about ourselves. We are conquering our self-love, our pride. Something we have to stand on.

That's what brings us down, that's what makes us sad. It overcomes us. It leads us to be dominated by sadness. We can get a great joy from the ordinary fulfillment of our ordinary duties.

Thank you, Lord, for letting me be able to carry out this task. I'm not sick. I'm not handicapped in some way. I'm able to do this, I'm able to do that. It's all the talent that you have given to me.

Deo omnis Gloria–all the glory to God.

Chesterton like to say that cheerfulness is a highly civilized product. All of us have to try and bring a certain joy and cheerfulness to the places where we work, where we study, where we exist, the people we function with every day, because with that joy, we can lift up other people's lives—help them to think on a different plane.

John Paul II liked to say that cheerfulness and holiness are the inevitable results of getting closer to God. So it's impossible to be genuinely cheerful if we don't pray, if we don't turn our life into a constant dialogue with God. Hence, the importance of our prayer.

Like the apostles beginning again after Easter, little by little coming to grips with this incredible reality of the Resurrection—Christ has risen again by His own power—they begin to take on a new perspective in their life.

Their lives have now changed. From being so weak and running away, now little by little the pennies begin to drop. The Scripture is being fulfilled. Our Lord is going to come to strengthen their faith.

The seeds of that new beginning are already there, and they're going to go on forward to be great saints and great apostles.

After Easter, with the apostles, in spite of all of their miseries and their defects and their failures, we also can begin again with a new hope, a new joy. It doesn't matter about my failures, my miseries. I'm in good company with the apostles.

But like them, I have to learn to look at new horizons in my life. What is God asking of me? What is he saying to me?

It's like the apostles—I come to realize I have been chosen not because of what I am, but because of what I have to become.

There's a message of hope and joy that comes with Easter. We learn that our cheerfulness has to come from the tabernacle.

There may be some moments in the day when we may need to pass by the tabernacle to recover our cheerfulness because we might lose it because of some reason. We get angry or get mad or get disappointed.

We come to Our Lord and we leave those little problems at His feet and say, “Lord, I leave this thing before you—this annoyance or this irritation. I recover my peace and my joy.

We have a lot of reasons to be joyful because we are with God. He hasn't given that grace to many people.

Philosophers say that joy is the rest of the appetite and the possession of the good. If you love chapati and you find there's a chapati placed in front of you: ahhh, joy, cheerfulness. It's the rest of the appetite and the possession of the greatest good.

On the philosophical plane, the higher things, God is the greatest good, and so we are in possession of that. The Blesssed Trinity is in our soul in grace. Then we have every reason to be joyful. We rejoice in the divine goodness that's there living in us. We are participating in it.

Desire is a movement towards something good. You might desire the chapati or moving towards it. But then when it's put in front of you, joy is in the possession of the good.

St. Thomas Aquinas says that possession is important; it's not just the desire. That's a certain joy that's there, but we get it when we actually have it.

As long as we are in this world, we have that desire for that eternal joy. We are not just made for the passing joys of this world, because they pass. They don't fully satisfy it.

We seem to have an infinite appetite for joy. We don't say, Now I have this chapati, I don't need anything else for the rest of my life. I have achieved total fulfillment.

Nobody talks like that, because tomorrow we want something else.

We are made for eternal joy. We have an appetite for the infinite joy. This tells us that deep inside the soul of man is that desire for the infinite.

That's why we can only find our total joy in the things of God. Infinite truth, infinite goodness, infinite love.

Lord, help me to stay very close to you. Help me to see how you can draw good out of anything. Omnia in bonum (Rom. 8:28), so that I don't lose my joy.

I see that you are working through this contradiction or through this difficulty. St. Josemaría liked to say that “joy and happiness in this world have their roots in the form of a cross.” Often it's in accepting the little crosses that joy comes.

Our Lady had to pass through the Good Fridays and the Holy Saturdays before she experienced this great joy. The less humble we are, the more we might rely on our own powers, our own energies, our own abilities to do this on our own. And then the more we can be frustrated.

We can't rely on our own powers; we are nothing. All our joy comes from Him.

And now Our Lady experiences that profound joy in her soul, because everything has been accomplished.

All those words that she has treasured carefully in her heart—they have now come to fulfillment. Nothing can take away her joy.

If we are faithful along the pathway, then one day, like Our Lady, we will possess that eternal joy. And that's the greatest treasure worth having.

Blessed Álvaro liked to say, “Let us ask the Holy Spirit to burn us and purify us with the fire of His love. Let the fire of your love destroy the pride in me. Let it stamp out my self-seeking. Make me not to take myself too seriously. Teach me to laugh at myself.”

One great cartoonist, Charles Schulz, I think was his name, in the States many years ago, used to say, “If I teach the whole world one lesson, the lesson I would try to teach them is to learn how to laugh at yourself.”

What a fool I am, what an idiot, what silly things I do occasionally.

Like that lady who went to Confession, who was a bit deaf...she went into the confessional box and made her Confession, but there was no reply on the other side of the grill. Ater a while, she realized there wasn’t any priest there. She had confessed her sins to thin air.

Then she came out of the confessional smiling a little bit to herself: What a silly billy I am, with my deafness and I can't hear. What a stupid thing to do.

But then God used that moment, because there was a young girl in the church who came to her the following day and said, “I want to thank you because I saw you coming out of that confessional box yesterday. I saw the wonderful smile on your face. And I really thought to myself, Confession really is the sacrament of joy. That was the last little push I needed to go to Confession because I haven't been there for many years. And I want to thank you very much.”

So God uses everything—the little smiles that He puts on our faces and all the silly billy situations we may get ourselves into.

“What can really tire us out,” said Blessed Álvaro, “is pride, making things revolve around ourselves. Aside from overwhelming us, it impedes the soul from feeling God's closeness.”

“You're full of concern,” we're told in The Forge, Point 392, “because you do not love as you ought. Everything annoys you. And the enemy does all he can to make you show your bad temper. I realize you feel very humiliated. Precisely because of this, you must take measures to react without delay.”

Sometimes we have to catch ourselves. The great temptation of the devil is to bring us down, get frustrated, discouraged, irritable, angry, sad, but we have to try and recover ourselves from that situation.

The Book of Proverbs says a sad soul is predisposed to evil. “Sadness spoils a person's heart like a moth ruins clothes and a termite damages wood” (Prov. 25:20).

If the devil brings us down, he can get us to do all sorts of things. So the Book of Wisdom says, “Take heart and cheer up. Throw away your distress.”

Yes, sadness has killed many people. We can't let ourselves be overcome by sadness. We have to struggle, to fight a little bit, recover our joy. It's an act of humility.

We have to try and discover sometimes the root of our sadness, the cause of our sadness, and uproot it. Get it out.

Laughter is God's sunshine. When we go to the get-together with that cheerfulness, or to meal times, or details of family life, we should go with a smile.

Joy and cheerfulness are the motor oil that makes human interaction run smoothly—particularly important at work and other places where there may be intensity and a bit of tension, etc.

A cheerful attitude helps us to be positive and understanding with the defects of others and their mistakes. A sense of humor helps to put things in perspective. Things are not as bad as all that.

St. Teresa of Ávila says, “Let nothing disturb you, nothing frighten you. All things pass. God does not change. Patience achieves everything. Whoever has God lacks nothing.” These are wonderful words.

“Your charity,” we are told in The Forge, Point 699, should be likable. Without neglecting prudence and naturalness, try to have a smile on your lips for everyone at all times. Though you may be weeping inside, the service you give to others should be unstinting too.

“The first step towards bringing others to the ways of Christ is for them to see you happy and serene, sure in your advance towards God.”

With every reason we sing to Our Lady these days, “Rejoice in Bethlehem, O Virgin Mary, for the Lord has truly risen.”

May you help us to grow in our joy and help us to be very aware always of this Easter joy so that we can spread it to so many other people.

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

EW