The Church thus wants to remind us that joy is perfectly compatible with mortification and sorrow. What is opposed to joy is sadness, not penance. Living deeply this liturgical season that leads to the Passion -and therefore to sorrow-, we understand that approaching the Cross also means that the moment of our Redemption is drawing nearer, it is ever closer, and that is why the Church and each one of her children are filled with joy: Laetare, rejoice, O Jerusalem, and rejoice with her, all you who love her.
The mortification that we will be living these days should not overshadow our inner joy, but quite the contrary: it should make it grow, because our Redemption is drawing near, the outpouring of love for mankind that is the Passion is approaching, the joy of Easter is imminent. For this reason we want to be closely united to the Lord, so that the same process may be repeated once again in our lives: to arrive, through his Passion and his Cross, at the glory and joy of his Resurrection.
Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say to you: rejoice5. With a joy that is equivalent to happiness, to interior joy, and that logically also manifests itself in the exterior of the person.
"As is well known, there are various degrees of this "happiness". Its noblest expression is joy or "happiness" in the strict sense, when man, at the level of his higher faculties, finds satisfaction in the possession of a known and loved good (...). A fortiori he knows joy and spiritual happiness when his spirit comes into possession of God, known and loved as the supreme and immutable good". And Paul VI goes on to say: "Technological society has succeeded in multiplying the occasions of pleasure, but finds it very difficult to engender joy. For joy has another origin: it is spiritual. Money, 'comfort', hygiene, material security, are not often lacking; nevertheless, boredom, affliction, sadness, are unfortunately part of the lives of many".
The Christian understands perfectly well these ideas expressed by the Roman Pontiff. And he knows that joy springs from a heart that feels loved by God and that in turn loves the Lord madly. A heart that also strives so that this love for God is translated into works, because it knows - with the Spanish proverb - that "works are love and not good reasons". A heart that is in union and at peace with God, because, although it knows it is a sinner, it turns to the source of forgiveness: Christ in the sacrament of Penance.
As we offer you, Lord, in the joyful celebration of Sunday, the gifts that bring us salvation, we ask you to help us.... Suffering and tribulations accompany every person on earth, but suffering alone does not transform or purify; it can even be the cause of rebellion and disaffection. Some Christians separate themselves from the Master when they reach the Cross, because they expect purely human happiness, free of pain and accompanied by natural goods.
The Lord asks us to lose our fear of pain, of tribulations, and to unite ourselves to Him who awaits us on the Cross. Our soul will be more purified, our love more firm. Then we will understand that joy is very close to the Cross. Moreover, we will never be happy if we do not unite ourselves to Christ on the Cross, and we will never know how to love if at the same time we do not love sacrifice. These tribulations, which by reason alone seem unjust and senseless, are necessary for our personal holiness and for the salvation of many souls. In the mystery of co-redemption, our suffering, united to the sufferings of Christ, acquires an incomparable value for the whole Church and for all humanity. The Lord makes us see, if we turn to him in humility, that everything - even that which has less human explanation - works together for the good of those who love God9. Pain, when it is given its meaning, when it serves to love more, produces an intimate peace and a profound joy. For this reason, the Lord often blesses us with the Cross.
Thus we must walk "the path of self-giving: the Cross on our shoulders, with a smile on our lips, with a light in our soul".
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