Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent
December 11, 2007
"Cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of Good News!"
- Isaiah 40:9

We are all seeking the happiness which will not end which is called joy. So often the search is outside ourselves. What person will do it for me? How much financial security do I need before I will find it? Where can I find the party that will allow me to celebrate the celebration that I have always longed to celebrate? The search goes on and the greatest desire of our hearts goes unmet.

We look for the joy somewhere outside ourselves and we need to come to grips that this kind of search is an eternally faulty search. What we seek is not outside ourselves. It is within. It is Jesus in the core of our hearts. We do not need to physically travel anywhere to find that which we long for. The place is within. And what we seek is the love of our lives, Jesus. We take the spiritual journey of prayer and contemplation to find our Joy living in our depths. This is the Good News! Jesus living in you!

Why don't we cry out to the world with the Good News? Jesus, the only true joy there is, lives in us! When the disciples received the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost the people thought they were drunk. Filled with the Good News that Jesus had risen from the dead to live evermore, they joyfully and unreservedly proclaimed their discovery to all the world. They were intoxicated, not by drink or drug, but by the power of the person living within!

Where is our intoxication of the fact that Jesus lives in us? The life of the Christian is to herald this Good News! The Lord of History and Savior of the World lives in you! The futile, external search is over and you find the joy in you. Is there any good news in the world that approaches the greatness of this Good News?

So, you ask, "Where is paradise?" "Where is the joy of heaven?" It is in your heart.

Let us pray: "Jesus, you live in me. You are the Lord of history, The Lord of this world and the Lord of my life. As the Lord, you bring me to the fullness of joy in your loving presence. Help me to remember that what I am looking for is not outside me. It is within. That which I seek is you, who live within me. Teach me Lord that, in all my seeking, it is you that I am seeking."

We are infinitely blessed!

+ Fr. John