Memorial of Saint Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
One antiphon from the Holy Thursday liturgy, Ubi caritas, states that where true charity is dwelling, God is present there. In light of today’s Gospel reading, one might also write a slightly different antiphon about joy, Ubi gaudium. Because where true joy dwells, God is present there.
True joy, the joy born of God’s love, cannot be contained. Joy has an infectious quality; it is something which is and must be shared, as Pope Francis reminds us in Evangelii Gaudium. Moreover, joy is in a way incontrovertible: one cannot argue with joy, and that makes joy so essential to the mission of evangelization.
This gift of joy, a gift which is uncontainable, infectious, and incontrovertible, is what Jesus desires to share with us. “I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete,” he says to the disciples. Jesus invites us to remain in his love, to keep his commandment of love, in order that we might share in his joy, the joy of his Father’s love.
Today, let us examine our hearts to see where this joy, the joy of God’s love, is present, to ask whether our lives manifest this joy to the world. And let us pray that, abiding in the love of God, our joy might be made complete.