Only True Love Can Bring True Joy
Live+Jesus
On Sunday we will chat about love that leads to joy.
Jesus taught us about a type of love that is very different from the love we often experience in the world. By His words and by His deeds, He showed us how the Trinity Itself loves. This love is a self-emptying love, a self-sacrificial love, and love so focused on the other that the self is forgotten. In the great Paschal mystery, we see Jesus so absorbed in love of the Father that He willingly sacrificed His very self for this love. His love of the Father’s will is all that matters.
St. Francis de Sales is a spiritual master in the school of this love. His great work, Treatise on the Love of God, traces a journey into the very heart of the love of the Trinity. At the very end of this two-volume work, Francis reaches Calvary. For Francis, Calvary is the true academy of love. When the human will surrenders itself to the will of the Father in an act of self-donation, love blossoms. Nothing enflames the human heart as this act of self-emptying love.
You may ask how St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal can be known for developing a philosophy of life that is optimistic, gentle, humble, and caring, if it is centered on Calvary. How do joyful friendship and devotion spring from such a source? Yet, this is exactly what we celebrate today. Easter, the Resurrection, the new life promised by God, are ours when we follow this path. While we will always pass through Calvary, Jesus has shown us that the true end of this sacrificial love is a sharing in the very life of the Trinity Itself. This life, the true destiny of the human spirit, is the love that never ends.
In the garden of the tomb Mary Magdalene thought that the man she met was a gardener- until he pronounced her name – ‘Mary’. It was in this instant that Mary recognized Jesus when he spoke her name so tenderly. This man spoke as Jesus spoke even if he did not look like Him. To put the Gospel into practice means that we too must speak to others as Jesus spoke.
We don’t have to look far to locate opportunities for self-sacrificial love. As St. Francis de Sales knew so well, they are present in every walk of life and in every situation of life. They come in small, medium, and large opportunities. The daily desire and ability to embrace them is a key to holiness. Let us listen to Jesus: “All this I tell you that my joy may be yours and your joy may be complete” (John 15:11).
Enjoy what remains of the Easter Season! Love others as Christ loves us and in so doing make every day a celebration of Easter joy!
(Fr. Michael Murray, OSFS)
We’ll be talking about love that leads to joy during our chat session on Sunday.
Pope Francis also talks of true love in his homily here:
http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/pope-s-morning-homily-gives-2-criteria-how-to-distinguish-true-love-from-not-true-love
Here are some questions from above that will guide our reflection:
- The reflection ends by encouraging us to enjoy the rest of the Easter Season. At first thought, this could come across sounding as if the rest of the liturgical year is not worth enjoying. What exactly is unique to the Easter Season? Especially in light of Saint John Paul II’s famous quote: “Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song”? How can we daily be “Easter people” but still have a special time for enjoying Easter? In other words, how can we be Easter people during the tough days of Lent?
- Often we try to find joy by filling ourselves with food, entertainment, exercise, excessive devotions, etc. It’s the age-old conundrum. In our weakness, we tend to become self-centered. Instead, God’s logic is the reverse. God tells us to empty ourselves in order to be filled. How might we learn this art and virtue of self-emptying?
- Even if God’s logic goes against our often selfish logic, how can we understand this concept that Calvary (self-sacrifice, death, etc.) is the height of love and joy? Especially when it comes to explaining it to those who are struggling with coming to faith in God?
- No matter what way of life one chooses (e.g., Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, atheist, etc.), we all have to face the reality of suffering. Suffering is not unique to Christians. We are all going to suffer in some way, no matter what. How can our faith (and the above reflection) help us see suffering positively? How can it help us see it differently than others who simply try to run and hide from it?
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