Rejoice, O heaven, rejoice, O earth, break forth into singing, O mountains, for our Lord is coming.In his days justice and peace will flourish9.The Christian must be an essentially joyful man. In his days justice and peace will flourish.The Christian must be an essentially joyful man.However, ours is not just any joy, it is the joy of Christ, who brings justice and peace, and only He can give it and keep it, because the world does not possess His secret.
The joy of the world is provided by that which alienates..., it is born precisely when man manages to escape from himself, when he looks outward, when he manages to turn his gaze away from the inner world, which produces loneliness because it is looking into emptiness. The Christian carries his joy in himself, because he finds God in his soul in grace. This is the permanent source of his joy.
It is not difficult for us to imagine Our Lady, in these days of Advent, radiant with joy with the Son of God in her womb.
The joy of the world is poor and fleeting. The joy of the Christian is profound and capable of subsisting in the midst of difficulties. It is compatible with pain, with sickness, with failures and contradictions. I will give you a joy that no one will be able to take away from you, the Lord has promised. Nothing and no one can take this joyful peace away from us, if we do not separate ourselves from its source.
To have the certainty that God is our Father and wants the best for us leads us to a serene and joyful trust, even in the face of the hardness, at times, of the unexpected. In those moments that a man without faith would consider fatal and senseless blows, the Christian discovers the Lord and, with Him, a much higher good."How many setbacks disappear when we place ourselves inwardly close to this God of ours, who never abandons us! The love of Jesus for his own, for the sick, for the crippled, who asks: What is wrong with you?It happens to me... And immediately, light or, at least, acceptance and peace " . And we look at Him and nothing happens to us anymore. Together with Him we recover peace and joy.
We will have difficulties, as all men have had, but these setbacks - big or small - do not take away our joy. Difficulty is something ordinary with which we must reckon, and our joy cannot wait for times without setbacks, without temptations and without pain. Indeed, without the obstacles we encounter in our lives, there would be no possibility of growing in virtue.
The foundation of our joy must be firm. It cannot be based exclusively on passing things: pleasant news, health, peace of mind, economic relief for the family, abundance of material means, etc., all good things, if they are not detached from God, but by themselves insufficient to give us true joy.
The Lord asks us to be always joyful. Let each one see how he builds, for as for the foundation, no one can have any other but the one that is laid, Jesus Christ.12 He alone is capable of sustaining everything. He alone is capable of sustaining everything in our life. There is no sadness that He cannot cure: do not be afraid, have faith alone13 , He tells us.He counts on all the situations through which our life has to pass, and also on those that are the result of our foolishness and our lack of holiness.He has a remedy for all of them.
On many occasions, as in this time of prayer, it will be necessary for us to turn to Him in an intimate and profound dialogue before the Tabernacle; and to open our souls in Confession, in personal spiritual direction. There we will find the source of joy, and our gratitude will manifest itself in greater faith, in a growing hope, which will drive away all sadness, and in concern for others.
In a little while, in a very little while, the One who is coming will arrive. Wait, because he will come without delay , and with him comes peace and joy; with Jesus we find the meaning of our life.
Hablar con Dios
