Sunday, December 11, 2022

The love of joys unknown

We’re at Advent III, Gaudete Sunday. This is the one devoted to joy.

After two weeks of contemplation and preparation (that’s the plan, at least), this is the break in the stillness, when Christians bust a few moves and proclaim the joy of the coming of the Christ.

This year—third of the pandemic, seventh of the fascist takeover of the Republican party, unknown of the climate disaster, first of the Russo-Ukrainian war—well, asking any cognizant person to give way to joy seems like a stretch. Let’s face it: the world is just about literally a dumpster fire. And that’s scary AF.

But I think that’s precisely what we all need—that break to just take an hour, a day, a few minutes to look around you and find joy. It can be as small as a baby’s smile or as great as an amazing cloud formation when the sun hits it just right. If you mindfully give way to joy, it’s amazing how much your emotional, spiritual, mental and even physical batteries are recharged.

Therefore, today’s Advent music is “Jesus bleibet meine Freude”, known in the English-speaking world as “Jesu, joy of man’s desiring”, by J.S. Bach. Here’s the Netherlands Bach Society performing it.

May all the people of the world find joy sufficient to lighten the burdens we all carry.

 

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