Each weekday for the next 14 days, Father James Lyons (Wellington) will be helping us reflect on God’s Word while we are in lockdown. What is God saying to us as we globally unite to defeat Covid-19?
JOY TO THE WORLD
Setting: decorate your prayer space with images and colours to create a joyful atmosphere. Perhaps drape a white cloth over the crucifix to show the link between suffering and joy.
Prayer in praise of a new day:
Praise and glory to you, Christ Jesus.
Your coming among us was
news of great joy for all the world
and your continuing presence is a
constant source of joy even in difficult times.
Though containing the Virus means
limiting personal contacts and choices,
I give praise for this new day.
Help all of us to see you present
in this challenging moment.
Keep our hearts joyful.
Two spiritual giants and Nobel Prize Laureates, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu spent a week together, in 2015, at the Dalai Lama’s home in Dharamsala, India. They had arranged the visit to coincide with the Dalai Lama’s 80th birthday and to spend the time discussing and exploring the question: how do we find joy in the face of life’s inevitable suffering?
The resulting book, The Book of Joy was published a year later. For this prayer day, I am offering some of the insights and comments offered by these Buddhist and Christian ambassadors. Their theme is so appropriate for this time of uncertainty as the Corona virus threatens untold suffering across all nations. A joyful heart has no space for negativity, no room for despair.
Archbishop Tutu: “We don’t really get close to others if our relationship is made up of unending hunky-dory-ness. It is the hard time, the painful times, the sadness and the grief that knit us more closely together.”
READ: Acts of the Apostles, chapter 1. It was only after the death and resurrection of Jesus that his disciples came together as a united group. Contrast their behaviour and outlook in “Acts” with their attitude in Matthew 20:17-24, and elsewhere. Prestige, power held their focus, certainly not joy.
DALAI LAMA: “Our whole society has a materialistic culture. In the materialistic way of life, there is no concept of friendship, no concept of love, just work, twenty-four hours a day, like a machine. So in modern society we eventually also become part of that large moving machine.”
Will the experience of lockdown cause us to see the community in a new light? Can being in a situation where you are not allowed to be with people help you to be more open to contact, more ready to notice and relate to others when the lockdown is over? You can be joyful when you are alone, but not when you are lonely. Loneliness wipes out joy. There are people all around us, in every town and place; but too many of them are lonely.
ARCHBISHOP TUTU: “If you are filled with negative judgement and anger, then you will feel separate from other people. You will feel lonely. But if you have an open heart and are filled with trust and friendship, even if you are physically alone, even living a hermit’s life, you will never feel lonely.”
DALAI LAMA: “The only thing that will bring happiness is affection and warm-heartedness. This really brings inner strength and self-confidence, reduces fear, develops trust and trust brings friendship. We are social animals and cooperation is necessary for our survival, but cooperation is entirely based on trust… If you feel fear and distrust, then other people will distance themselves. They will also feel cautious, suspicious and distrustful. Then comes the feeling of loneliness.”
Both have experienced great personal suffering and persecution. They agree that joy is reached through suffering and adversity.
DALAI LAMA: “You see, if there are no difficulties and you are always relaxed, then you complain more… We can experience more joy in the face of great adversity than when life is seemingly easy and uneventful.”
THE JOY OF GIVING
- Research indicates that people find greater joy in giving to others than in buying something for themselves. Reflect on your own experience of giving a present, paying for someone’s meal, giving service…
- Archbishop Tutu offers a powerful example from the Dead Sea: “It receives beautiful water from the rivers, and the water goes dank. I mean, it just goes bad. And that’s why it is the Dead Sea. It receives and does not give.” Consider: Joy comes as a gift through giving.
- When we learn not to take ourselves too seriously and can joke about ourselves, humour becomes part of our makeup. Joy is very comfortable with humour. Don’t miss the light-hearted moments in this lockdown time. Make some of your own. Look for them in the scriptures.
This is an ideal time to read what you may have wanted to read but “never had the time”! For instance, Pope Francis’ Evangelii Gaudium, The Joy of the Gospel, 2013. It can be found on GOOGLE. Just to read a section of it will be uplifting and a way of updating your understanding of faith. The Pope concludes his writing with a prayer to Mary for guidance and encouragement. Such prayer has special relevance for our present situation.
Mary, Virgin and Mother,
you who, moved by the Holy Spirit, welcomed the Word of Life
in the depth of your humble faith:
as you gave yourself completely to the Eternal One,
help us to say our own “Yes” to the urgent call, as pressing as ever,
to proclaim the good news of Jesus.
Filled with Christ’s presence, you brought joy to John the Baptist,
making him exult in the womb of his mother.
Brimming over with joy, you sang of the great things done by God.
Standing at the foot of the cross with unyielding faith,
you received the joyful comfort of the resurrection,
and joined the disciples in awaiting the Spirit
so that the evangelising Church might be born.
Obtain for us now a new ardour born of the resurrection,
that we may bring to all the Gospel of life which triumphs over death.
Give us a holy courage to seek new paths that the gift of
unfading beauty may reach every man and woman.
Virgin of listening and contemplation, Mother of love,
Bride of the eternal wedding feast, pray for the Church,
whose pure icon you are, that she may never be closed in
on herself or lose her passion for establishing God’s kingdom.
Star of the new evangelisation, help us to bear radiant witness
to communion, service, ardent and generous faith, justice and
love of the poor, that the joy of the Gospel may reach to the end of the earth
illuminating even the fringes of our world. Mother of the living Gospel,
wellspring of happiness for little ones, pray for us. Amen. Alleluia.
