Lætare Jerusalem!
Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her.
(Roman Missal: Introit for the Fourth Sunday of Lent)
Be joyful, all who were in mourning;
exult and be satisfied at her consoling breast.
In this long Lent, it may be difficult to find any but the most transient pleasures. We’ve been sheltering in place since we returned from the American Pilgrims conference on Monday. Since then, I’ve left our property exactly once for a minor grocery store run. Cabin fever is starting to set in.
Meanwhile, the pestilence stalks across the world.
Yet today, somehow in the middle of Lent, the Church calls us to joy.
This Sunday, called, from the first word of the Introit, Lætare Sunday, is one of the most solemn of the year. The Church interrupts her lenten mournfulness; the chants of the Mass speak of nothing but joy and consolation; the organ, which has been silent during the preceding three Sundays, now gives forth its melodious voice; the deacon resumes his dalmatic, and the subdeacon his tunic; and instead of purple, rose-coloured vestments are allowed to be used.
(The Liturgical Year, Dom Prosper Guéranger, OSB)
Joy, it should be noted, has nothing necessarily to do with pleasure or even our immediate, worldly happiness. Oh, no! Joy is instead one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. It is rooted in God and it is, as G.K. Chesterton observed, “the gigantic secret” that is the essence of Christianity.
The pleasures of this world will wither away, but joy is eternal.
Christian joy is the spiritual sharing in the unfathomable joy, both divine and human, which is in the heart of Jesus Christ glorified. …
Joy is the result of a human-divine communion, and aspires to a communion ever more universal. In no way can it encourage the person who enjoys it to have an attitude of preoccupation with self. Joy gives the heart a catholic openness to the world of people, at the same time that it wounds the heart with a longing for eternal bliss. Among the fervent, joy deepens their awareness of being exiles, but it guards them from the temptation to desert the place of their combat for the coming of the kingdom. It makes them hasten actively towards the heavenly consummation of the nuptials of the Lamb.
(Gaudete in Domino, Pope Saint Paul VI)
So let’s set our eyes on Christ and allow ourselves to be swept into His embrace, the source of all joy.