A Joy No One Can Take Away: Christian Hope Even In Grief

Just for today, allow yourself to be happy. Even if you feel that your grief is too deep or your pain is too much, I pray that you allow yourself to be joyful in hope.

There are already too many days of sadness, too many hours of weeping until our tears were no more.

Today, let us offer to God our joy.

Joy for all of God’s blessings in your life. Joy for His goodness. And joy for all the wonderful things that are yet to come.

We Christians have a faith that does not lead to despair but hope; not to eternal mourning but to eternal bliss!

The world may have fallen into darkness, but Christ came with salvation. He is the Light that disperses all shadows and warms every heart gone cold.

Be hopeful! Be joyful! Mother Teresa herself said that joy is the net with which to catch souls.

It is not through eloquent sermons that a soul turns to God. Quite often, it is by witnessing that kind of joy that can only come from a fervent faith in God.

“We are an Easter People!” Pope St. John Paul II exclaimed. Our faith does not end in the harrowing sorrows of Good Friday but on the joy of Easter Morn.

While God walks with us through our deepest griefs, He leads the way towards our happiness. Believing in Him does not only include the cross but the joy of the risen Christ.

This is the best sermon that we could ever give: to let the world know how much joy can be found in God!

Because the world today is lost in its search for happiness. And the world seeks it in various things and places where it can never be found.

The joy that we proclaim is more than the fleeting pleasures of the world. It is more than riches, more than fame, more than the pride of achievement we often work so hard for.

And this joy that Christ gives us is free. He has given us everything, even Himself, to be crucified for our sake.

All that we need to do is accept it. And if we do receive it, how else do we do it but with everlasting joy!

Joy penetrates the core of our being. It mingles even with the most painful wounds in our hearts. It is not afraid to touch our worries, nor is it hesitant to stand amid the fiercest storm.

Because this joy is the kind that Christ gives. The kind, He said, no one could ever take away from us.

Let no one then dare to steal it. And let us make ourselves the very first ones to cast it away.

To accept this joy and hope is to accept the message of Jesus Christ. It is to believe in His redemption and everlasting love.

The world can take away many things, but not this joy that Jesus gives.

May you have this joy today and let it be a light that shines brightly upon your heart!

“We do not pretend that life is all beauty. We are aware of darkness and sin, of poverty and pain. But we know Jesus has conquered sin and passed through his own pain to the glory of the Resurrection. And we live in the light of his Paschal Mystery – the mystery of his Death and Resurrection. ‘We are an Easter People and Alleluia is our song!’. We are not looking for a shallow joy but rather a joy that comes from faith, that grows through unselfish love.” – Pope St. John Paul II

“So you also are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. On that day you will not question me about anything. Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. Until now you have not asked anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.” – John 16:22-24 (NABRE)

Jocelyn Soriano is the author of 366 Days of Compassion. You may want to read this devotional book as you start each day to inspire you and lead you to prayer.

Where is God? God is with us, but we often do not know where to look and so we do not see. God is there, pursuing us, waiting for us to take the time to call on Him in our helplessness, in the routine of our daily lives. He is the one who will fill our lives with meaning and our hearts with hope and love.