Scripture Reference: John 16:20-22

To some degree, Christianity agrees with philosophies which assert that human beings have limited freedom and externally determined destinies. In the world as it is, of course, there is no genuine freedom, and wise is the person who admits that such freedom is a childish dream. Childhood is left behind, the celebration ends, and all that remains are the deaf walls of day-to-day reality. But Christianity claims that this freedom still exists, that celebration is possible and has already started, and that “your sorrow will be turned into joy” (John 16:20). For by its very presence, this sorrow testifies of God, of the world of joy, love and freedom, of the world human beings were created to inhabit, and for which, often unknown even to themselves, they have always longed. “Our hearts are restless . . .”

This restlessness which nothing can relieve and nothing can satisfy is, for Christians, the primary evidence of God’s presence. But it is not for lack of trying that the restlessness goes unrelieved. Not a century has passed without someone’s trumpeting the latest solution to all problems, to all of humanity’s searching. Here’s the truth! Get complete peace and satisfaction! But in reality, nowhere outside of Christ Jesus, did anything ever deliver this peace. Today we still hear the claim: we’ve found the truth, here it is in this theory, in this doctrine. “You’ll see; a few years will go by and then we’ll have a new world, a new society, a new system that will give human beings total happiness.” But the decades go by and all we see are ruins. Who still believes in this dead doctrine? No one.

With no exaggeration, it can safely be said that nothing except faith, and no one except God, has ever succeeded in giving not just happiness, but a truly deep response to humanity’s persistent longing for genuine, authentic life; that’s where joy comes in . . . it is the fruit of the Spirit. God and faith have responded and continue to do so. When someone finds God, when the inner flame of faith is lit, then childhood’s lost celebration and wholeness are simultaneously returned and restored. This is what Christ was speaking about when he said, “Become as little children” (Matthew 18:3) and “Whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child will by no means enter it” (Mark 10:15). To be like children simply and precisely means to return to life as joy and freedom that was once lived in that innocence.

Look at the saints. What is so striking about them is their joy, their complete peace in this joy, and their freedom: they have that inner freedom which comes only from assurance and confidence in the truth they have found. That is why the Church always celebrates. That is why the believer’s entire life is defined by a rhythm of inner preparation, approach of feast, and feast itself. Our sadness remains, but now it is the sadness that comes from being unable to give ourselves wholly to freedom and joy: We are still too bound-up with ourselves, with triviality, with pettiness, with the circumstances in the world that surround us, and with evil. Now, sadness leads the way into feast and celebration instead of suppressing it. Now, there is no evil or anything else capable of conquering and stripping away that mysterious light burning within our souls, that joy no one can take away. Therefore, in the end, it is through this joy and freedom of celebration that faith will overcome a system empty of celebration, whose uninspired, colorless ideology has nothing to offer humanity.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
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