Joy

Joy can come in many shapes and sizes, and in various “depths” if you will.  On a shallow experience of joy, on Saturday I experienced joy in being able to see some grass!  But it was fleeting, because last night it was covered up again.

On a much deeper level, we have the joy that Isaiah expresses in toward the end of this book, “I will rejoice in Jerusalem and exult in my people. No longer shall the sound of weeping be heard there.”  So there’s a sense of deep joy that God can give us.

In the Gospel, we hear the story of the healing of the son of the royal official.  Here, the joy is not something that I experience, but I am acknowledging the joy that another experiences.  It’s the son that is healed, and the whole household become believers.

Maybe on this day of our Lenten journey, we can be attentive to the joy of another – to the joy that another experiences, or the blessing or the grace that another experiences, and we can be very grateful.

Monsignor Daniel Hoye