DECEMBER 17, 2017
4:30 PM (SAT), 7:30 AM, 9:00 AM ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) MASSES
The first volume of the Oxford English Dictionary was published in 1888. Volume 1 covered the initial letters “A - B.” Forty years later, the final and tenth volume “V - Z” was published in 1928. Five years later, it was re-published in 13 volumes, including supplements.
It wasn’t until 1989 that a second edition was published in 20 volumes.
The most quoted writer in the OED is Shakespeare, while the most quoted work is the Bible.
The OED defines “joy” as “a feeling of great pleasure and happiness.”
Yet, with apologies to those “wise clerks of Oxenford” who have been working on documenting the English language for nearly 130 years, it seems odd that these three words seem to get muddled and blurred together in this definition.
Today is the Third Sunday of Advent, the vestments are “rose” colored, and we are nearly a week away from Christmas.
The Entrance Antiphon for today says: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near,” taken from the fourth chapter of St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians.
In the first reading from the 61st chapter of Isaiah, we hear:
I rejoice heartily in the LORD, in my God is the joy of my soul …
In the responsorial psalm, we recited:
My soul rejoices in my God.
… while listening to excerpts from Our Lady’s Magnificat from Luke’s Gospel.
And St. Paul tells us to
Rejoice always.
While also admonishing us to pray without interruption, and to be thankful in all circumstances.
And so, we must be clear what joy is. Is it pleasure? Is it happiness?
In his 1967 work titled The Guide to Contentment, Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen says:
Joy is not the same as pleasure or happiness. A wicked and evil man may have pleasure, while any ordinary mortal is capable of being happy. Pleasure generally comes from things, and always through the senses; happiness comes from humans through fellowship. Joy comes from loving God and neighbor. Pleasure is quick and violent, like a flash of lightning. Joy is steady and abiding, like a fixed star. Pleasure depends on external circumstances, such as money, food, travel, etc. Joy is independent of them, for it comes from a good conscience and love of God.
Sheen helps us to break these three words apart. He writes that pleasure is sensory and transitory … and is dependent on external things; that happiness comes from the fellowship of others – arising from our interaction with human beings.
But joy … joy comes from God … by loving Him and neighbor … by persevering in God’s merciful love and abundant grace … only then can we experience true joy … as manifested by the Holy Spirit in our lives.
As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ – let us pray for the grace of a good conscience – by loving God and neighbor – and to persevere in God’s love and grace.
Through the manifold graces of this most Blessed Sacrament, may we experience joy … true joy … which comes from God … and from Him alone.
