A Year of Joy and Peace

Over the last couple of weeks, I have heard and read a lot about the need for joy and laughter in our world today. In fact, I just made a phone call, and the “Muzak” playing while I was on hold reminded me to “always look on the bright side of life.” However, one might ask, “What is there to be joyful about?” or “How can there be a bright side?” We keep hearing about scandals in educational institutions, religious institutions, and many other organizations. Whom can we trust? There is also the horrible economic situation all around the world where the rich seem to be getting richer and the poor still poorer. There are natural disasters destroying people’s homes and lives almost every day. There is government corruption, trafficking in women and children, illegal immigration, and environmental hazards…. WOW! I am depressing myself even though I had intended to write about joy as the New Year begins. Is it very easy to be disheartened and dejected.
 
Some people speak of surviving the holidays. We get overly stressed about trying to make Christmas perfect for our families. We worry about buying just the right gifts, and then worry about how to pay for it all. Christmas, the season of joy and peace, has become the time of last-minute shopping, stores staying open 24 hours a day to get the last drop of money they can out of us. Where is the joy? How can this be peace?
 
As is often true, we can find an answer in Scripture:
 
“So I commend enjoyment, for there is nothing better for people under the sun than to eat, and drink, and enjoy themselves, for this will go with them in their toil through the days of life that God gives them under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 8:15
 
Ecclesiastes reminds us that God wants us to be happy. Take a deep breath and look to this New Year as an opportunity to recreate yourself. Ask yourself where your happiness really comes from and what gives you a sense of peace. The joy of giving means we have something to share. We have love and concern, sympathy and comfort, experience and wisdom. Sharing these will give us the sense of joy that Ecclesiastes talks about – a sense that will guide us through those toilsome times and those worrisome days. God has planted the seeds of joy in us. It is our job to help them grow.
 
Sister Pat is a member of the RENEW staff, a Dominican Sister, and loves working with Young Adults as the program manager of Theology on Tap.