Our faith is a faith of joy
Feb. 16—Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: Jeremiah 17:5-8; Psalm 1, R Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.; 1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20; Gospel–Luke 6: 17, 20-26
This Sunday’s Gospel is Luke’s version of the Beatitudes in his Sermon on the Plain. The more popular version is Matthew’s from the Sermon on the Mount.
I would like to focus on the virtue of joy for our first point. This will lead us to our second point, which is the centrality and importance of mission. Then, finally, I will synthesize these with St. Ignatius’ concept of freedom.
Fr. Hans Kung pointed to three important graces for a meaningful life. First is trust, the foundational element of our life. It is a stance toward life that is trusting–of our self, others, life in general, and God. Basic.
Then he said that more important is joy. Our faith is a faith of joy. We suffer and undergo trials, yes, but the final word is joy. It is the joy of the Resurrection that defines our faith life.
Then we have meaning as the third grace. It is the synthesizing grace.
Author and New York Times opinion columnist David Brooks wrote a book titled “The Second Mountain.”
Brooks begins his book with a discussion of moral joy. It is a joy that comes from a total giving of self in service. It is totally other-centered.
This joy is lived out in our daily actions that are aligned with our ultimate commitment. It is a life of integrity and wholeness where our ultimate commitment lies at the center.
This brings us to our second point. What is our ultimate commitment? What is it that we are willing and able to dedicate our life to?
Fr. Catalino G. Arevalo calls this our setting of our life within the horizon of a dream larger life, to which we dedicate our life and from which we draw inspiration to live a life of meaning and purpose.
Ultimate commitment
We have reflected on this as our vocation or our mission. This is our ultimate commitment. This is our horizon of a dream larger than life.
To live out our mission is to live a life of integrity and wholeness. This is a life of joy, day in, day out. It is a life that is focused.
Joy, integrity, and wholeness are graces that come from freedom.
St. Ignatius of Loyola had a simple yet profound concept of freedom.
He distinguishes between two levels of freedom, one building on the other. At the end of the first week of his Spiritual Exercises, after an intense process of discovering self-awareness and self-acceptance, he introduces his concept of freedom.
The initial level is a freedom from–the freedom from vices, sin, etc. Then he goes beyond this, goes deeper. He posits the freedom for commitment.
One can look at “freedom from” as the beginning of the journey toward self-transformation. This evolves, with the help of God’s grace, to the “freedom to” commit.
Commitment is the fruit of self-transformation and is the movement of offering oneself, “all that I have and am, you have given all to me. Give me only your love and your grace. These make me rich. I ask for nothing more,” (St. Ignatius’ prayer, Take and Receive)
This is commitment and freedom at its finest. This is pure joy and pure grace: “I ask for nothing more.”
