Joy, a Gift of the Spirit

Joy, a Gift of the Spirit
“Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control”
From Galatians 5:22-23


Last month I wrote about love. What an easy topic! I could write that article in my sleep (not really). Love is the first gift of the Spirit that St. Paul mentions in his letter to the Galatian Christians. The next gift is joy. For those of us who need an attitude adjustment, there is joy!

Imagine a pyramid. The pyramid is made of layers of stone, becoming ever-narrower toward the top. That is an adequate (but not perfect) image for the gifts of the Spirit in Galatians. Imagine “Love” (love that God gives us as a gift through Jesus Christ) as the bottom level, the foundation of the pyramid. Next up, we have joy. Each gift supports and perhaps opens the possibility for the next. Each “layer” is foundational for life in Christ. Each is integral to the whole. Each is a facet of eternal life experienced now.

Now joy. Mother Teresa said, “Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.” Pause and think about that wise saying for just a moment! Mother Teresa was a notorious scrubber of tender skin. She put in her time flushing out bedpans and lifting weak bodies literally out of the gutter. And she was joyful.

How is your level of joy? I have to confess, I meter out my joy so I can have enough by the end of the day. But that’s a terrible way to be, because by withholding joy I push it away and it only returns by way of the joy of another, and by yet another gift from the Holy Spirit. Joy is meant to be expressed in full force, with all the stops pulled out, all day long. At the end of the day, the joyful person has not run out of joy! In fact (and you know this), joy has increased, even infecting the person next to you.

Can you gaze deeply at all of life’s circumstances with joy? Yes, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Joy doesn’t have to paint life a rosy color. Joy can be an eternal “yes, and” that helps us through each day and each relationship. Someone might say “Things aren’t going so well with my health.” Your response can be, “Yes, and there is a promise that one day there will be healing for all nations, including you, because of Jesus”. Our joy is given to us by the Holy Spirit, which is the presence of the Resurrected Christ in us and in the world around us.

Joy!