Thursday, June 9, 2023
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Joy in the morning, joy in the noontime, joy at suppertime
May his holy name be praised throughout all the ages,
Because it was he who scourged me,
And it is he who has had mercy on me.
Behold, I now see!
Margaret’s years-long love for “joy” is contagious. Paul’s idea of the nine-fold fruit of the Spirit nearly starts with joy (love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control). Comments about joy have been hitting me on every side from several men and women I learn from over and over. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, for example:
Joy abides with God, and it comes down from God and embraces spirit, soul, and body; and where this joy has seized a person, there it spreads, there it carries one away, there it bursts open closed doors. A sort of joy exists that knows nothing at all of the heart’s pain, anguish, and dread; it does not last; it can only numb a person for the moment. The joy of God has gone through the poverty of the manger and the agony of the cross; that is why it is invincible, irrefutable. It does not deny the anguish, when it is there, but finds God in the midst of it, in fact precisely there; it does not deny grave sin but finds forgiveness precisely in this way; it looks death straight in the eye, but it finds life precisely within it.
Henri Nouwen also speaks out about joy:
The joy that Jesus offers his disciples is his own joy, which flows from his intimate communion with the One who sent him. It is a joy that does not separate happy days from sad days, successful moments from moments of failure, experiences of honor from experiences of dishonor, passion from resurrection. This joy is a divine gift that does not leave us during times of illness, poverty, oppression, or persecution. It is present even when the world laughs or tortures, robs or maims, fights or kills. It is truly ecstatic, always moving us away from the house of fear into the house of love, and always proclaiming that death no longer has the final say, though its noise remains loud and its devastation visible. The joy of Jesus lifts up life to be celebrated.
Neither of these guys were particularly known for their happy-go-lucky lives, so joy as they speak of it, the joy of Jesus, the joy of God, is something I think they needed to survive. They took it seriously. My enneagram seven self also needs an IV of joy these days, as I ponder illness, helplessness, and encroaching weakness. I don’t need to be happy, although my seven-ness tells me I do. I do need the joy that surpasses understanding.
Pulled away from her Jewish roots by the writings of Teresa of Avila, Edith Stein waited in joy for the Nazis to come. Later she became one of the six patron saints of Europe. She lived her life with some abandon, even in the face of nearly certain death:
To suffer and to be happy although suffering, to have one’s feet on the earth, to walk on the dirty and rough paths of this earth and yet to be enthroned with Christ at the Father’s right hand, to laugh and cry with the children of this world and ceaselessly to sing the praises of God with the choirs of angels – this is the life of the Christian until the morning of eternity breaks forth.
Like all of us, this wonderful woman had to juggle the shadow of her physical life with the reality of her spiritual one. In all that juggling, she kept her feet in the dust of the earth. Like Teresa, she became a “discalced” Carmelite nun. (Discalced is a complicated word for “barefoot.”) In 1942 she was murdered in an Auschwitz gas chamber, likely two or three hot August days after she was captured in the Netherlands.
The Nazis did not keep close track.
Bonhoeffer lived the last few years of his life in a World War II German prison, then was hung a week or so before the war ended. He shared spiritual food with his fellow prisoners, often being allowed to preach and write. He thought much about their lives:
What matters is this joy that has overcome. It alone is credible; it alone helps and heals. The joy of our companions who have been called home is also the joy of those who have overcome – the Risen One bears the marks of the cross on his body. We still stand in daily overcoming; they have overcome for all time.
Bonhoeffer wrote of how difficult it was for him to live in this “overcoming.” He fell into fear, he fell into unfounded hope, he fell, he fell. And then he let God pull him up again. That’s all I want too. It’s what we pray for.
Blessed are you, child!
Welcome to your home with blessing and joy.
Come in!
(Tobit 11, Psalm 146, John 14, Mark 12)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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