Joy

“These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.’” (John 15:11).

King Charles IX of France

Christ teaches us to love.  If you really think about the whole point of our entire religion then you can recognise the real point of our religion, which is love – just LOVE…

Christ came to Earth and assumed human form as an act of LOVE.  He did not have to do this.  He did not need to do this.  If He did not do this the universe would have been complete and nothing would have happened.  God does not need us to be a better God.  God is perfect and complete without us.  He does – however – want us to be His children.  He does – however – want us to be with Him in Heaven – not because it is good for Him, but because it is good for us.  Because He loves us so completely, Christ was willing to come to Earth and assume our lowly and weak human form so that He could suffer for our sins – not His sins – and save us from ourselves.  There is nothing that I can do to merit Heaven.  I am sinful and as a sinful human being I am unable to do anything that could ever make me worthy of Heaven.  To be worthy of Heaven I must be without sin as the angels are.  Ut I am not without sin.  Even were I to confess every one of my sins I would still have once had a sin on my soul and thus I would be unworthy of being in Heaven.  It is only through the Sacraments and through the Grace that God grants us through those sacraments that sin is cured and we are able to merit Heaven – not through our own merits but through God’s!

“Jesus said to his disciples: ‘abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.’” (John 15:9-11).

There is such joy in Heaven at the salvation of a soul.  All of heaven waits to see the redeemed soul enter…  The French King, Charles IX asked the poet Torquato Tasso who the happiest person is and the poet replied that that would be God.  The King clarified his question, “Bah! I know that; I mean among men?”  The poet replied, “he who is closer to God.”

Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta believed that every soul who she encountered should leave the encounter feeling happier.  She never wanted a soul to feel worse for an encounter with her.  And thus, despite great spiritual dryness and suffering, Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta ensured that she saw Christ in every soul she encountered and that she engaged with every soul joyfully, being a personal Christ for them in that moment…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.