God of joy.

You have girded me with joy» Ps 30, 12.

Christianity, a religion of joy, is so because it shares in the joy that resides in the Holy Trinity. Joy is the very air that permeates God. We often describe God as mercy, love, and peace. In certain life circumstances, we can grasp these divine attributes with our hearts. We may experience the paternal goodness of God, who attends to our personal needs, or the mercy of Jesus Christ, who forgives our sins.

To enjoy joy, we must immerse ourselves in the atmosphere of the Holy Trinity. May God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit experience complete and perfect joy together thanks to the love with which they love each other. The ideal love in God results from the mutual self-giving of the persons of the Holy Trinity. Because as soon as there is a gift, there is potential joy. In God, this gift is complete, so his happiness is total. The Father is the joy of his Son when he gives himself entirely to him. The Son is the joy of his Father when he also gives himself entirely to him. They are each other’s joy. And to imagine it, we can say that the explosion of love between them is the person of the Holy Spirit.

Despite the noble doctrine, the Holy Scriptures do not despise the simple joys of life. He knows the joy of a rich harvest or vintage, the pleasure that we are among brothers and can glorify God together, the joy of the birth of a child, the joy that springs from the admiration of creation. Perhaps we are unaware of it, so the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s statement still applies: “You all seem to me to be a little redeemed.”

Christian joy presupposes a person capable of naturally rejoicing. Human joys are pleasing to God. Remember to offer him them to purify, sanctify, and intensify them. However, the discovery of true joy presupposes that we will be able to advance higher, not stop at the horizontal level of the joys offered, but that we will find a vertical direction in them.

Christian joy, being primarily spiritual, naturally extends to all natural and emotional joys. It is this spiritual joy that transforms natural joys into true joys of the human heart. However, one who fixates on human pleasures, no matter how uplifting, without seeking to connect them with their source, merely confirms their fleeting nature. Their quest for authentic joy will remain unfulfilled.

Man, a being driven by desire, is capable of experiencing joy. He cannot exist without it and seeks it with all his might. Often, the pursuit of joy and happiness inspires his actions and life choices. Yet, man is fundamentally a spiritual being. God designed him to live in communion with him; thus, no joy of this world can fully satisfy him. His heart will find true fulfillment only when he receives the joy the world cannot offer, but God freely gives it to those seeking it.