20201221 TRUE JOY IN SORROW
21 December, 2020, Monday, 4th Week of Advent
Zep 3:14-18a
14 Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion;
shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
O daughter of Jerusalem!
15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you,
he has cast out your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall fear evil no more.
16 On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:
“Do not fear, O Zion;
let not your hands grow weak.
17 The Lord, your God, is in your midst,
a warrior who gives victory;
he will rejoice over you with gladness,
he will renew youi in his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing
18 as on a day of festival.j
“I will remove disasterk from you,
so that you will not bear reproach for it.
Luke 1:39-45
39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a city of Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would bee a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”
TRUE JOY IN SORROW
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Songs 2:8-14 or Zep 3:14-18a; Luke 1:39-45 ]
Christmas is approaching soon. The expectancy of Christ’s birth gives us joy. But what kind of joy does Christ’s coming give us? Jesus in John’s gospel tells us that He has come to give us a joy that that is complete, a joy that is abundant and this joy, no one can take from us. (cf Jn 15:11; 16:22-24)
Firstly, our sorrow will turn to joy. We will not be in sorrow forever. The Lord said, “So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” (Jn 16:22) This is the pain that is spoken of in today’s first reading, either from the Song of Songs or from the Prophet Zephaniah. The people were in sorrow because they were in exile. The book of the Song of Songs must be read in the context of the Book of Lamentations when Jeremiah wept for the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. The people of Israel were in mourning and in exile paying the price for their sins. They were ashamed of what they had done, their infidelity to the Lord resulting in the loss of their kingdom and their Temple. They were no longer able to face the Lord. Hence, as the first reading says, they were “hiding in the clefts of the rock, in the coverts of the cliff.”
The Good News is that God has taken away our shame. He has forgiven us. He comes like our Beloved looking for us. “See how he comes leaping on the mountains, bounding over the hills. My Beloved is like a gazelle, like a young stag. See where he stands behind our wall. He looks in at the window, he peers through the lattice.” The Lord wants us to return to Him. He puts aside our past and our mistakes. He says to us, “Come then, my love, my lovely one, come.” Indeed, the cold winter and the rain are over and spring is here again. “The flowers appear on the earth. The season of glad songs has come, the cooing of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree is forming its first figs and the blossoming vines give out their fragrance.”
Indeed, the prophet Zepaniah calls us to “Shout for joy, daughter of Zion, Israel, shout aloud! Rejoice, exult with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord has repealed your sentence; he has driven your enemies away. The Lord, the king of Israel, is in your midst; you have no more evil to fear.” God is setting us free from our enemies, our sins, our broken past. He is once again in our midst and we no longer have to live in fear. “The Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult with joy over you, he will renew you by his love; he will dance with shouts of joy for you as on a day of festival.” With God, we will never fear again because He will win victory over every sin, every evil and all our enemies, physical or spiritual.
In the gospel, we read of the joy of Mary, Elizabeth and John the Baptist when the Lord came to them in their midst. Mary, full of joy for Elizabeth who conceived in her old age, went in haste to offer her help to Elizabeth in her late stage of pregnancy. When she arrived, Elizabeth was filled with joy. “As soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, ‘Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy.” Not only were the mothers filled with joy in the Holy Spirit when they encountered the Lord’s presence in their midst, with Mary carrying the baby Jesus in her womb, even John the Baptist leaped for joy. He was sanctified in the womb of Elizabeth, and filled with the Holy Spirit, fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah who said, “even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit.’ (Lk 1:15)
What was the cause of their joy coming from the presence of the Lord in their midst? It was the joy of being invited to share in the divine plan of God for the salvation of humanity. Each of them was called in their own ways to realize the salvific plan of God. All of them felt honoured and privileged to be part of this salvific plan God had in store for humanity. There was no jealousy or envy between them. Elizabeth was not envious of Mary being chosen over her to be the Mother of the Saviour. She was truly happy for Mary. She praised the faith of Mary, “Blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.” On her part, Mary was self-effacing in her dignity as the mother of the Savior because she only thought of taking care of Elizabeth rather than herself when she too was expecting. She could have stayed back to make plans for the baby but she only thought of rejoicing with Elizabeth in her pregnancy and wanted to offer her help.
What was equally significant was that John the Baptist too was not envious of his younger cousin, unlike the parallel birth of Jacob and Esau by Rebekah when she felt both babies struggling within her womb (Gn 25:22), foreshadowing the rivalry between Jacob and Esau. The Lord said, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger.” (Gn 25:23) However in the case of John the Baptist and our Lord, they complemented each other. John the Baptist was happy simply to be the forerunner of the Messiah. He said publicly, “You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.’ He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.” (Jn 3:28-30)
So joy is ours when we share in the divine plan of God regardless which role the Lord asks us to play. It does not matter whether we are simply the voice, the bridesmaid or the messenger. Like Elizabeth and John the Baptist, we should be content with the role that the Lord has chosen for us, instead of comparing ourselves with others. Unlike the joy that comes from the world when we are praised, honoured and glorified, which can be taken away at any time, this joy of serving the Lord can never be taken away. This is because our joy is found in Him and not in others or in the world. Such joy the world cannot take from us.
Secondly, in Godly joy, our joys will once again turn into sorrow. But it is not just sorrow but a joyful sorrow. Whilst we find great joy in serving God and His people, this joy is never without pain or sacrifices. Such a joy is an unselfish joy. Unlike worldly joy which is focused on oneself, Godly joy springs from our total commitment in service to the Lord and His people even in suffering. This was the case of Mary who had to stand at the foot of the cross of her Son at Calvary watching Him crucified and died. John the Baptist too, in his joy of calling the people to repentance in preparation for the coming of the Messiah, had to pay the price of his head in speaking the truth. So there will be suffering when we experience joy in serving the Lord, sharing in His divine plan.
This too was the case of the Jews even after their return from Babylon. After their return, they were still dominated by foreign powers. They were ruled by the Persians under Cyrus, followed by the Greeks under Alexander and then the Romans. Their hope of liberation came with Jesus. However, they thought Jesus would bring about a political revolution instead of a spiritual revolution. It was not about earthly powers but the power to serve the poor, care for the sick, embrace the marginalized, forgive sinners, restore the dignity of every person. This was the kingship that Jesus came to offer the Jews, which they did not accept. If they did, they would have certainly been liberated and not destroyed once again by the Romans who sacked Jerusalem and demolished the Temple in A.D. 70. In the final analysis, joy without sorrow can only happen at the end of time when all of us are in His kingdom and when there is a new heaven and a new earth. “He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more.” (Rev 21:3f)
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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