Saint Paul tells us to “always be joyful in your union with the Lord” (Phil 4:4). This is a curious comment. How can we always be joyful when we are surrounded by so much suffering? Some things are pretty bad. Where is the joy in murder, abortion? Well, I don’t think there is, but we can still find joy in all situations as long as we are mindful of our union with the Lord.
St. Paul goes on to say that we must “Show gentleness to everyone.” (Phil 4:5). Joy in all things and now gentleness towards everyone when they cause me to suffer? Yes. If we want to maintain our connection to God and have that joy, we must not let people get under our skin, embrace a negative attitude and use harshness. That’s not to say we can’t stand for righteousness. It simply means if we want the connection to God to be maintained, we must maintain a gentle spirit or we will lose our awareness and sensitivity to Him and His whispers. He is always there and with us, but we have to do our part. Sometimes we feel alone because we have broken the connection due to sin, even venial. Sometimes the darkness is necessary for our growth and we may feel like we have broken our connection, but a gentle and peaceful spirit will say otherwise.
There’s more! Paul then tells us not to worry about anything, but pray so we have peace. “Be anxious for nothing ,” (Phil 4:6). In other words, we are advised to give all our concerns to God and let Him handle them. That should give us peace. Remaining joyful in union with the Lord requires us to also be trusting so that we can remain in love and, again, not break that connection. He later goes on to list some things we can think of that will aid us in maintaining our connection. (Phil 4:8)
But we may argue that this is hard because sometimes the suffering is great. Even some things that are daily done cause us to feel overwhelmed with great suffering. How do we find joy when all we really want to do is fall apart? First of all, if falling apart is in our heart then we know we can talk to Jesus about it and give Him our heart to take care of so we have can then have peace. Once we’ve done that we can sit back and be mindful of what Jesus did for us and how that bond we have with Him is first given to us daily through our crosses, our sacrifices.
Jesus died for our sins. We are crucified with Him in that our flesh is dead to the sin in the world, but we are resurrected and alive with Him in the spirit (Gal 2:19-20). Jesus conquering death is a tremendous gift. Another awesome gift is our free will. It was awesome in the garden and it is awesome now. Unfortunately, we do at times abuse it by choosing to sin, but Jesus gave us a way out. Forgiveness and picking up our crosses daily. We may not be crucified and put to death for our sins, but that doesn’t mean we don’t struggle and suffer because of them or because of the sin in the world when the struggle is not our doing. Jesus was without sin, but he had to carry the sufferings of life and pick up His cross daily because He wanted to be fully man minus our sinfulness. He wanted to experience what we did, including the results of original sin while never sinning Himself. So on Good Friday He had to carry His cross, but then came Simeon who then carried it for Jesus. In my relationship with Jesus I believe that happened because Jesus couldn’t die for our sins on His cross of sin. He was sinless. It is one thing to suffer as a result of original sin. It is another thing to suggest that the sin was His. His cross had to really be ours. He couldn’t have us united with Him if it was His cross. For a union to exist, we had to be a part of it. In my relationship, I believe the Father sent Simeon because it had to be seen that the cross of sin was ours and Jesus would take our place. He took our place, not on His cross, but ours. He was crucified for our sins, not His. The cross became ours when Simeon picked it up and carried it just as Jesus said we would have to do. Luke tells us that Simeon carried it behind Jesus. In other words he was not alone, but following Jesus (Luke 23:26). Jesus died on our cross and as Simeon carried it, he represented each one of us. We now all must daily pick up and carry the cross of original sin and at times our personal sin knowing we are not alone, following Jesus and carrying it so He can then nail it to the cross for us. The burden of our sin is heavy on Jesus so by carrying it we help in union with Him. As Paul says, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ” (Col 1:24). We are what is lacking until we pick it up and carry it and, as Paul notes, we can rejoice over that.
So getting back to all things having joy in them. I like to think that in our suffering, we carry the cross, our cross, so Jesus doesn’t have to. We do it for Him. He is with us, but we carry it out of love so He doesn’t have to. He died on it. We carry it. We have the easier job, but we don’t do it alone. There is joy in knowing He is with us. If we are open and mindful, we can find joy in knowing that by carrying our crosses for Jesus, we are living out what John told us when he said, “We love because He first loved us” (1John 4:19). With every cross we bear our bond grows stronger as long as we can be mindful of our union, remain gentle with others as He did on the cross and give everything to Him so we do not have to be anxious and lose the awareness of our connections. When we do this, suddenly daily responsibilities such as cleaning our homes isn’t an awful chore that overwhelms us, but a noble one. It makes people feel good and refreshed when they enter a clean home. Suddenly all common and unlikable chores become noble in union with the King of kings. We do it for Jesus and we do it for our neighbors. All things become a prayer when we realize who we are doing it for. All things are loving and nobly done for those who benefit directly and indirectly when we use our very life as a prayer being offered for someone else. We become ambassadors of love even when we are alone because we are united to the King. That is definitely something to rejoice about.
We are in a battle and some crosses are thrust upon us due to the sins of others. They are heavy and oftentimes heartbreaking. If we want to be victorious we need to pick up those crosses with joy as well. We battle for God and neighbor and when done right, we maintain a gentle connection of love and peace. When we are connected to God by love, we are connected to everyone else who is connected to Him. When we do that we pour forth a spirit of love that effects them even thought they may be unaware. It is as if we form a giant net to catch everyone in and knowing that love is always victorious helps us to know we are helping to stomp out the evil in the world. We are knee capping the enemy. When we are aware of this, we can truly embrace always being joyful in our union with the Lord. The stakes are high and breaking that union is far too costly for our relationship with God and the needs of our neighbors in the world.
Prayerfully reflect on:
Each of the scripture passages above. Choose one a day. With each passage, talk to Jesus about what was stirred up in your heart. As you then go about your day, be mindful of what happened during your prayer time and try to live it out.
In the evening review your day. Did you stay connected? For the times you didn’t, tell God your sorry and resolve to pick yourself up and lovingly try again.