Where is your joy?

   Do you have joy?  And if so, where is your source of joy?  Indeed, our greatest joy should be in Jesus Christ.  In Jesus Christ, we see the depths of God’s love for us.  We see our worth.  We see that our inadequacies are washed away in God’s love.  Our inadequacies are nothing compared to God’s limitless love for us.

   If your joy is in Jesus Christ, then no one can take away or otherwise tarnish your joy.  Sadly, we seek joys from other sources.  We are social beings and we naturally have relationships with more than just Jesus Christ.  Until we reach the perfection of sainthood, it will be hard not to let others take away or tarnish our joy.  Those are perfect times for us to look upon a Crucifix and see the suffering that Jesus endured for love of us.  Surely, that will restore our joy to some extent.

   How do we stop ourselves from seeking joy from other sources?  That is a tall task.  But it does not come from rejecting other sources of joy.  We are not going to cut our relationships with others.  We need to increase our relationship with Jesus Christ.  If we order our relationships properly, then our joy comes from its proper source.

   If our joy comes from a source of love so limitless as to be God Itself, we know that we have found the right source of joy.

   Joseph, you lived a day of joy in your everyday family life with Jesus and Mary.  Help us to properly orient our relationships so as to live the same joy in our everyday life.  Amen.