The theme of this Sunday is JOY. In the first
reading taken from Is 61:1-2A, 10-11 the prophet is crying out the news of joy
and happiness. He proclaims good words to the poor, healing to the broken
hearted, liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners. All these news are
joy to respective groups. Above all these, He declares the year of Lord or Jubilee
year or year of Lords favour. In the Israel world, jubilee year is the year of
Lord, where in the slaves will be set free, people would rest from work and dedicated
the entire year only for the praise and worship of Lord Yahweh. The prophet also
rejoices gladly because the God of Israel has captivated his soul. His soul is
imbibed with the spirit of Lord Yahweh. Only a person who is filled with the
spirit of Lord can enjoy real happiness and find happiness and joy in the
proper place.
All of us want to be happy and joyful always. Of course,
sufferings and unfortunes are inevitable in one’s life. But, we can still be
happy if we approach those inevitable moments with apposite orientations. The mistake
that we do today is that we often search for happiness in wrong places. Material
things give satisfaction to our needs. Happiness is not something that can be
drawn from materials. The joys that we get by accumulating things and
celebrating festive with grand eats are only momentary. Therefore, they are not
real joy, they are only satisfaction of momentary needs. Joy is not bound by
time and produced by things. The joy and happiness are the desires of soul. St.
John the Baptist, though lived ascetic life in desert still he lived happily,
because his soul was filled with the spirit of the Lord Yahweh. The Lord was
the sole desire of his soul. Thus, he sang the coming of the savior and proclaimed
Him when He came. He bore witness to Jesus by declaring “I am not the messiah”
and humbly denying that he is neither Elijah nor a prophet, although he was
both.
In the second reading St. Paul invites us to be
happy always. To do that he suggests us to be constant in prayer and be engaged
in thanksgiving. In prayer we understand the will of God and in thanksgiving we
come to know the blessings we have received. Joy is not restricted by material
property nor determined by worldly scale of greatness. The real joy is peace in
the heart. Jesus is the prince of peace. He gives peace to the broken hearted
and fainted souls. Let us open our hearts to His message of salvation and
peace. Let our life, soul and body be filled with His spirit, so that we may
sing the praise of God as Mary did in today’s responsorial psalm. A person
filled with the spirit of the Lord is fueled to be joyful in life, soul and
body. May the coming of ‘Joy to the world’ fuel us to experience joy always and
radiate holiness everywhere.
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