The Noontimes

The Third Sunday of Advent – Gaudete Sunday – December 16, 2012

John 21

Knowing Joy

I few years ago I came across this final chapter of John on the Third Sunday in Advent which in the traditional church calendar is called Gaudete Sunday, or Rejoice Sunday.  It may seem odd to spend time on Christ’s resurrection just as we make our last preparations for the coming of the Christ Child but when we understand the overwhelming joy of the apostles as they interact with the Risen Christ . . . we begin to understand more fully what it is we anticipate in the Nativity.

Now that I have re-read the Noontime reflection from this day some years ago, I look back and realize that although I have taken a road less traveled it has been the better road.  I have taken the way with bumps and disappointments but one on which I have learned about balance and moderation, one on which I have fully given myself over to God’s hands rather than trusting myself to my own.  The less journeyed path has led through dark days and troubled nights but it has resulted in a much fuller life in the Spirit. The less popular route has provided me with lessons and tools with which to handle grief in a transformative way.  It has taught me that there is a clear difference between pleasure and joy . . . and it has shown me that God always calls us to know the joy he has in store for us. 

From my present place I can look back to see that what I yearned for that day I now have in abundance: peace despite betrayal, calm despite deceit, joy despite trial.  The road less traveled had at first seemed like a dark, forbidding walkway that wended its way over frightening depths and twisted through dense forests.  Yet with new tools and better perspective I see that despite its hazards this path curls through open leas and provides bridges for the yawning abysses along the way.  This frightening, least-traveled way has become a place of constant familiarity, a place where terror and anxiety melt as trust in God grows, a place where outrageous hope replaces despair. 

On this day several years ago as I struggled with my fear of the less-traveled road, I came upon an excerpt from the work of Servais Pinckaers, O.P., a professor emeritus of moral theology at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland in which he made a distinction between pleasure and joy.  He wrote: Pleasure is only a contrivance devised by nature to obtain for the creature the preservation of its life; it does not indicate the direction in which life is thrusting. But joy always announces that life has succeeded, gained ground, conquered. All great joy has a triumphant note. . . Joy is perfectly compatible with moral excellence; it is a sign of this excellence and contributes to its perfection. The fount of joy lies in the inner depths of our being, at the roots of our freedom, when this freedom is open to the outpourings of goodness and love. Yet, in order for the waters of this fount to pour forth within us, we have to make a personal choice of great price: When we receive the call to a greater good, a good that will reveal to us the true joy at the core of our lives, will we know how to break free from the charms of pleasure through a liberating renunciation? The discovery of joy beyond our trials is a decisive step on the way to moral maturity. One even comes to perceive, [that joy,] upon fulfilling its requirements . . .  does not destroy, but rather refines and rightly orders, pleasure.

And so we pray . . .

When we receive the call to a greater good, a good that will reveal to us the true joy at the core of our lives, will we know how to break free from the charms of pleasure through a liberating renunciation?  Good and gentle God, grant us your outrageous hope so that despite turmoil and chaos and grief we will always abandon our search for mere pleasure . . . so that we might know your full and indescribable joy.  Amen.

Cameron, Peter John. “Day by Day.” MAGNIFICAT. 17.12 (2006): 226-227. Print.  

To read a post by Servais Pinckaers, O.P., click on the image above or go to:  http://dawneden.blogspot.com/2008/04/guest-post-joy-founded-on-truth-servais.html