Finding Joy in the Sorrow

It struck me the other night that all the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary I usually pray are about Jesus’ conception, birth, and childhood.  Is there no joy in adulthood?  But I DO recall that He said unless you have the heart of a child, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.  You need that level of complete trust, as a child does, and that is living in joy.

My Jesus, I trust in You.

When Mary appeared to some children in Rwanda Africa in the 1990’s, she taught them to pray a different rosary with her, a rosary which meditates on HER seven sorrowful mysteries.  Of course, most of Mary’s sorrows mirrored those of Jesus’ Passion, His sorrows caused deep sorrow in her, but three of her sorrowful mysteries centered on Jesus’ childhood.  Two of them, the Presentation of the baby Jesus in the Temple, and the Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple are also listed among the Joyful Mysteries of the rosary we have prayed so often.  From one point of view, those childhood events were great joyful events we pray about and celebrate, but from another, they were deep sorrows for Mary.  The Presentation had the baby taken to the Temple, His Father’s house, a great joy, but there Simeon prophesized His later sufferings, which gave Mary great sorrows.

When the 12-year old Jesus stayed at the Temple to speak to the elders after the feast day, when she discovered Him missing, Mary thought He was lost; she thought she had failed in caring for Him, and was deeply disturbed until He was found, and even then she heard echoes of future sorrows.

As these Joyful and Sorrowful events show, sometimes joys and sorrows intermix, depending on the viewer, but often those sorrows are a focusing on the unknowns of the future, as Mary did.  Jesus Passion came soon enough, THEN Mary’s sorrows were truly united with His.

Perhaps that is how things are meant to be in these times, the scary, sorrowful times of today.  Look for the joys, remember the blessings we have and give thanks to God.  And if deep, unavoidable sorrows are to come, unite those sorrows with His, that these great sorrows may lead to great joys, even as His death did.  God’s mercy is endless.  If greater sorrows are to come, I will be sad, even as I pray for His Mercy, and trust in Him to bring great joys out of these sorrows.

Blessed be God Who comforts us in all our trials.  2Cor 1:3

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I said a few posts back that I’d likely be further quoting from Stinissen’s book, This is The Day the Lord Has Made, and today’s meditation from there (May 24) is worth sharing:

Step by Step

God didn’t create the world and humankind complete, once and for all.  God creates the universe in an evolution.  He creates humankind so that our insight grows and deepens little by little.  Only by and by do we find out what is right and true.

This evolution is part of creation itself; it is contemplated by God and part of his plan.

God doesn’t wish for a child to act and think as an adult.  The child has a right to be a child.  There are phases in the evolution of both the individual as well as humankind as a whole, and each phase holds its own truth.  God doesn’t require you to be now what he may want you to become later.  But in each phase of this evolution you are given a certain measure of light and insight in order to keep growing.  You must take the necessary steps from where you are to where God calls you.  The old is never wasted if you proceed according to what you now know is right.

It is not fair to judge your past from what you know now, but didn’t know earlier.  And even if you should have acted earlier against your own better judgement – not following your conscience and insight – you can put everything right by doing what you now know to be right.

The possibility of living according to God’s will is always open.  From time to time, it may even be God’s will that you don’t know what to do to move on.  In that case, surrender your uncertainty to him, accept being temporarily in the dark.  If you are completely honest with God and yourself, you will know what to do, when the time comes.