Joy and Sorrow

The Father’s love sweeps the earth like an immense wave; and with his protective wings, He envelops and embraces all creatures. This is the definite reason for joy among the sons of men.

And Jesus displayed a huge range of parables, eulogies, and comparisons to show that the Father loves us freely. Such an exceedingly optimistic message can only spring from a joyous heart, and so we always affirm that the Gospel is a hymn to joy.

However, the Gospels present Jesus as a man burdened with suffering. In effect, there are glimpses by which we may intuit that Jesus was familiar with suffering, and that he possessed such knowledge about pain that only an experience of pain could give. This is the reason for His capacity for compassion; because only he who has suffered much can be so compassionate.

This is a heavy and difficult passage. It seems to be a prelude to the Passion. The sharpest and deepest pain is to feel oneself to be a bringer of a message of love and yet, when delivering the message, to be the receiver of misunderstanding, rejection, condemnation, and execution.

Deeply disappointed with the human race, Jesus had all the reasons for turning away from life. But he never did. During the hours of his passion, we never see him closed in on himself, or ruminating on his misfortune and failure and given to self-pity.

At all times we see him forget himself but mindful of others.

Extracted from the book “The Art of Being Happy” by Fr. Ignacio Larrañaga