Each of us must have uttered or written “Happy New Year” or its equivalent in other languages countless times in the last few weeks.  In an article in the www.opusdei.org website, there is an article entitled “Source of Joy” that I would like to share with my readers to reflect on the truth that for Filipinos, the majority of whom are Christians,  the New Year can be truly happy, joyful, despite the inevitable misfortunes, mishaps and misadventures that will cross our path during the next 365 days, starting with having to deal with the thieves who stole trillions of pesos related to the flood control scandal.   For a real believer and follower of Christ, constant joy is compatible with all types of human tribulations and sufferings.  Christians should have a reason to always be joyul.  This optimism is based on the fact that the royal way to the greatest good has been opened up to us:  the way to God precisely because of what we celebrated on Christmas day when the Savior  was born for the purpose of suffering and dying  to redeem us.

              Joy is intimately intertwined with love.  Every act of love brings joy with it.  There is the spontaneous love of affection which can even be directed to non-human beings like favorite places, food, drink, pets, etc.  God in his goodness gave us the ability to enjoy these earthly goods. We often say I love adobo, beer, Boracay and other non-humans.  Then there is the love of friendship which makes us enjoy being with people we consider our friends, starting with the members of our immediate family.  The highest form of human joy is the romance that exists between a man and a woman that culminates in the matrimonial or conjugal union.  Finally, there is the supernatural joy of knowing we are children of God and that we love Him by doing His will, the supernatural joy that transcends any natural joy we can attain on this earth.

              As we read in the article cited above:  “Human love is something real and true, and at the same time it is a sign or analogy  of God’s love.  Perhaps a good way to understand Christian happiness is to compare it with the joy of people in love.  They are cheerful, not in spite of encountering suffering, but indeed because of it, in the constant watchfulness, the loving care for another by which a person becomes fulfilled.  People in love, if they are loved, if they give themselves to their beloved and receive the gift of love, are happy:   they sing for joy. For the same reason children are particularly joyous, because their life consists of receiving love, particularly from their parents, but also from almost everyone, because almost everyone loves children.

              People with no supernatural outlook find it difficult to understand that one’s heaven should begin on earth.  Christian optimism is based on the fact that a royal road to the greatest good of all has been opened to us, and that “greatest good” is God.  Therefore permanent pessimism cannot be a Christian attitude.  This is especially important to remember nowadays when some of us are giving up hope that corruption can ever be eradicated from our midst. To think that everything is so bad, the human heart so corrupt that “not even God save it,” is a form of pride, of self-adoration.  This type of pride also shows up in human relationships:  people who are chronically sad do not let themselves be helped, but think they are so complex that nobody could ever sort them out.  On the other hand, there is nothing more pleasant than to discover someone who allows himself or herself be helped, not in a servile manner but with the open attitude of : “I don’t know this, please can you teach me?”  There are many occasions for us baby boomers to make this request of the millennials who can clarify for us the mysteries of the digital age, not to mention actual physical help when our legs can no longer carry us.

              St. Josemaria Escriva in his best seller “The Way” gives one of the most lucid explanations of the relationship between joy and suffering.  In this book, cheerfulness is linked to accepting God’s will, but not in a mere passive, cold acceptance.  The will of God is the will of our Father, and we know that good fathers want to give their children whatever will make them happy, so long as it is good for them.  But the key is that it should be good for them. Unfortunately, we human beings do not fully realise the true condition for joy in this world.  As St. Josemaria wrote:  “The joy of us poor humans, even when it has a supernatural motive, always leaves an aftertaste of bitterness.  What did you expect?  Here below, suffering is the salt of life.”  And then, from another point of view, penance is called “joy, in spite of its hardship.”  That is why we must welcome tribulation wholeheartedly.  “If you receive tribulation with a faint heart, you lose your joy and your peace.”       

              Gradually, the inseparable connection between cheerfulness and the Cross begins to appear, especially if we take into account that the term “cross” should only be used for the true  Cross, the Cross of Christ.  The sufferings that come to one’s life because of the evil things that he does, e.g. drug or alcohol addiction, marital infidelity, disloyalty to friends, etc. cannot be called true crosses.  As St. Josemaria wrote in The Way:  If things go well, let us rejoice, blessing God who gives us increase. And if they go badly? Let us rejoice, blessing God who allows us to share the sweetness of his Cross.”

              The Way, like all the great books of spirituality that deal with the reality of Christian life, avoids the trap of a facile optimism-pessimism dichotomy, or the over-simplifications of the “best of all possible worlds” (Leibniz) or the worst of all possible worlds (Schopenhauer).  In our real world sin exists and persists:  offence against God, shown tiless exploitation of our fellow creatures.  But sin is not the ultimate reality, and it is not what defines this world.  The ultimate reality is the Cross of Christ and His Resurrection:  the ultimate redemptive suffering that provides an opening for joy, now as a promise, and eventually as complete possession in the beatific vision.  A Most Happy, Healthy and Harmonious New Year to everyone. For comments, my email is bernardo.villegas@uap.asia.