“Sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all you lands.
Sing to the Lord; bless his name.
Let the heavens be glad
and the earth rejoice!” Ps. 96:1-2,11
My nephew John is two and a half years old and has begun to
speak much more since the last time I saw him. He is adept at commanding his
older brother James to “Share!”, expressing his displeasure over the church
outfit his mother picked out for him, and voicing his opinion about the food
put before him. However, what he is best at communicating is his delight in
others while playing. Sometimes, he gets so caught up in play and the enjoyment
of those around him that his squeals becomes a song of rejoicing.
Perhaps we do not squeal anymore. Perhaps the adult version of
squealing is belly-laughing. How often do we allow ourselves to rejoice
unselfconsciously? It seems as we grow older, we may become more filtered and
more collected in our expressions of joy. We may sometimes even feel silly,
undeserving, or even worse, guilty about being so raw with our happiness. Maybe
we do not have trouble with delighting in the present, but rather we do not
perceive anything to delight over. The burdens of our personal struggles or the
seemingly unending litany of global issues weighs down on us preventing any
opportunity to rejoice.
Christmas is a time of joy not only because we give and
receive gifts or spend time with our loved ones, but most importantly, we
celebrate the mystery of God’s romance with humanity and his greater desire to
become even more intimate with us. Pope Francis writes in the opening of his
Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, “The joy of the gospel fills
the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accepts his offer of
salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness. With
Christ joy is constantly born anew.”
Indeed with so great a gift as Jesus, how can we keep
ourselves from singing to the Lord a new song and blessing his holy name?
Lord Jesus Christ, open my
eyes to see how wonderful a gift you are. May my response to your gift of love
inspire those around me to rejoice.
Reflected by Michael Jamnongjit
No comments:
Post a Comment