As we approach the beginning of Holy Week this Sunday, we prepare to walk the Way of the Cross with Our Lord. From the exultation of Palm Sunday to the suffering of Good Friday, we confront the reality of our lives and the fundamentals of our faith. To get to Easter Sunday we must experience Good Friday. To obtain Easter joy we must embrace the cross. How did Jesus find joy and peace in the face of rejection and suffering? How do we witness to our world the joy of following in Jesus' footsteps?
Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, has a message for young people as we enter into Holy Week. He says, "Joy is at the heart of Christian experience...The Church's vocation is to bring joy to the world, a joy that is authentic and enduring, the joy proclaimed by the angels to the shepherds on the night Jesus was born (cf. Lk 2:10)" (Papal Message for Palm Sunday World Youth Day 2012). As members of the Church, it is our mission to bring this joy to the world, to be missionaries of joy, even in the midst of so much pain and suffering. In order to bring joy to the world, we must bring love to the world. We must give the gift of ourselves. "Dear friends," the pope continues, "joy is intimately linked to love. They are inseparable gifts of the Holy Spirit (cf. Gal. 5:23). Love gives rise to joy, and joy is a form of love. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta drew on Jesus' words: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive' (Acts 20:35) when she said: 'Joy is the net of love by which you can catch souls; God loves a cheerful giver. Whoever gives with joy gives more.'"
We must be eager to share the source of our joy with the world - that the Son of God has taken on flesh, suffered, died, and risen to take away our sins and give us abundant life! It is a message of hope that suffering and death are not meaningless, that life is not meaningless, that love is not meaningless. As we continue our Lenten journey, Holy Week reminds us to give with joy - to give all that we are to the Lord and allow Him to accomplish His will in each of us. Only by being faithful to His call will we find true joy.
The Holy Father concludes his words to young people with these words, "Be enthusiastic witnesses of the new evangelization! Go to those who are suffering and those who are searching, and give them the joy that Jesus wants to bestow. Bring it to your families, your schools and universities, and your workplaces and your friends, wherever you live. You will see how it is contagious. You will receive a hundredfold: the joy of salvation for yourselves, and the joy of seeing God's mercy at work in the hearts of others. And when you go to meet the Lord on that last day, you will hear him say: 'Well done, my good and faithful servant... Come, share your master's joy' (Mt 25:21).
As we continue on the path of discernment, whether it be in the small details of our daily lives, or in the larger questions of vocation, let us ask ourselves, are we just giving? ...or are we giving with JOY?
Written by Kristen
