By Fr. Emmanuel Alfonso, SJ
(This Homily was delivered over Radyo Katipunan 87.9 FM’s Keep the Faith Mass on May 2, 2024)
My Joy might be in you and your joy might be complete.
I’d like to begin with questions: What gives you Joy in your life now? Is it the sense of security you have from having a comfortable life—which means sufficient daily provisions, roof above your head, and insurance plans for the uncertain future? Or for those who are achievers among us, is it the sense of accomplishment over a successful career or a very productive profession. Or if you are the relational type amongst us, is it the love you enjoy with your family or among friends? Or maybe of you are a mystic, are you easily moved to tears of joy over the simple things of life, like seeing the sunset or the smiles of strangers? Indeed, what gives you joy, dear friends? There is a saying that for one’s life to have meaning, one must follow one’s bliss, one’s happiness or joy?
Joy is certainly one of the gifts or blessings of the Easter season. We talk for instance of Easter Joy. What is that? How does that differ from the joy of Christmas? The Easter season, which is a long one—50 days from Easter Sunday until Pentecost Sunday—is supposed to pour down on us many graces. We talk of new life, for instance, for Christ has saved us on the cross. Or new hope, for indeed Christ’s resurrection means eternal death is no longer our destiny. Yes, Christ’s resurrection makes all things new, as Paul tells us. Everything is new. And so we pray for and wish everyone not just new life, or new hope but also new beginnings, new strengths, new energies. In some places, Easter coincides with Spring, and so visually, everything is new, the whole world is a new creation. But what of joy? Can we pray for new joy? (What do you think?) But is it new in the sense of being fresh or new in the sense of being something else?
Friends, our Gospel today is the continuation of the Gospel yesterday which was the Gospel last Sunday when Jesus was preaching about him being the vine and we being the branches. He ends this sermon today with the mysterious words: “I have told you this so that MY JOY might be in you and your joy might be complete.” Notice that he doesn’t promise us any joy, but “MY joy”. He tells us what he is imparting with us is his own joy, which would compliment our joys. In other words, he doesn’t say I will give you happiness; instead he says, I will give you MY happiness. / So we ask, what is Christ’s happiness or joy? What readily comes to mind is Luke’s parables of the lost, lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son. For in these parables, Jesus tells us, in every finding of the lost, God and all of heaven rejoices. In the story of the lost sheep, he says, there is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. Similarly, the prodigal father says Let us rejoice because this son of mine was dead but is now alive, was lost but is now found. What then is the source of Christ’s joy? Man’s repentance or the finding of the lost. Which is actually Christ’s mission. That is Christ’s joy, the joy he wants to share with us to complete the simple joys we have in life. That maybe the new joy of Easter.
David Brooks, a famous writer in the US differentiates between happiness and joy. Happiness is the expansion of the self. Your degrees, your accomplishments make you feel big for example. (fills up your ego as it were). But joy is something else. It is the transcendence of the self. We felt this at the EDSA revolution for example or at the visit of Pope Francis. It is when you feel that you are part of something bigger than yourself. To be precise, when you feel you are part of God, God’s story, God’s mission. What gives you Joy dear friends? Is that joy founded in the joy of Christ?
