One of the words which we associate with the Easter season (which lasts until Pentecost on the 24th of May) is Joy… but what is joy and how might we encounter it?

People have been pursuing joy in every imaginable avenue. Some have successfully found it, but others have not. Perhaps it would be easier to describe where joy cannot be found:

Joy is not found in Unbelief – The French philosopher Voltaire was an unbeliever of the worst kind, attacking the Christian faith in his prolific writing. But on his deathbed, he said: ‘I wish I had never been born.’

Joy is not found in Pleasure – Lord Byron, a British poet and aristocrat, loved pleasure and gave himself fully to it – squandering his wealth and getting into numerous scandalous love affairs. But in a poem written 3 months before he died, Byron wrote: ‘The worm, the canker, and grief are mine alone.’

Joy is not found in Money – Jay Gould, an American railroad tycoon in the late 1800s amassed an enormous fortune of US$72 million before he died. But when he was dying, he declared: ‘I suppose I am the most miserable man on earth.’

Joy is not found in Popularity – Six weeks before Elvis Presley died, a reporter asked the king of rock, ‘Elvis, when you first started playing music, you said you wanted to be rich, famous and happy. Are you happy?’ His reply was, ‘I’m lonely as hell.’

Joy is not found in Position and Fame – Benjamin Disraeli had the distinction of becoming Prime Minister of the British Empire twice in his lifetime under Queen Victoria. But he wrote: ‘Youth is a mistake; manhood a struggle; old age a regret.’

Joy is not found in Military Glory – Alexander the Great was never defeated in battle. Within 12 years he conquered the known world in his day. But having done so, he wept in his tent, before he said, ‘There are no more worlds to conquer.’

Two things close us off from joy. The weight of the past can crush us under our guilt about mistakes that we have made and hurts that we have inflicted. We may also feel trapped by the consequences of the actions of others. On the other hand, when we worry about the future, we can miss the joy that is available at every moment.

Where then is real joy found?

It comes only from Christ Himself.

Joy is written into the fabric of creation. When God beholds creation, saying ‘It was good,’ might God be feeling joy?

Our experience of joy is more intermittent than this. It comes unexpectedly. In fact, if we try to grasp it, it eludes us, as the poet William Blake expressed so beautifully:

He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity’s sun rise.

When we experience it, though, we know that it belongs to us, or we belong to it – perhaps because it aligns us with God’s joy in creation. In this sense, it is our birthright.

We are in the Easter season. Attending to the Easter promise of new life, letting go of the past and living with openness and wonder for what streams towards us from the future, invites us to perceive the joy of the resurrection! Now that really is true joy.

Your friend and Team Rector

Matthew Tregenza