32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
R. Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.
Written by Joseph Bionat
Love has probably been on my mind more often than not. When I think about love, I reflect on what its fullness is. It’s the full knowledge and awareness of a person through their faults and successes—truly knowing and being united with the person.
Joy, the second fruit of the Holy Spirit, comes right after love. It is an active choice built out of love that is not only oriented to loving someone else but to love itself.
Joy is more than temporary happiness; joy is lasting and based on more than simply an emotional reaction to our circumstances: it is an active choice and disposition. The reason we have joy is that we have eternal hope in Jesus Christ. In recognizing that Christ has won the battle and has given the final word, we can live in true freedom and worship. We can fully live our lives in hope of the world to come. As we live a life that is ordered to God, we must first give praise through which we acknowledge his majesty, perfection, and wondrous beauty. That is why at the beginning of Mass, we sing the Gloria. We proclaim “Glory to God in the highest.” We give God our first fruits at the pinnacle of Christian worship.
Pope Benedict XVI said in Deus Caritas Est: “Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” This encounter is a meeting with love in which our lives will be filled with joy.
Until we return again to the Mass, let us go forth and proclaim the glory of God in our places of work and life by living the Christian joy.
How can I order myself to the one who first loved us? What things present a difficulty in living the Christian joy?
Joseph Bionat is a Marketing Director for a parish in Dallas, TX. He loves photography, traveling, and trying new foods when he isn't trying to take moody pictures. Follow him on Instagram for a mixture of dad jokes, moody pictures, and reposting National Park stories.
Pray with today’s psalm.