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Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I give you praise,
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden
these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them
to the childlike.” Luke 10:23–24
We rejoice over many things in life. We might rejoice if we win a
game, do well on a test, complete some task at home or work, or
attend a celebration or party. Though rejoicing is an emotion tied
to our human nature, true joy is spiritual in nature, a gift that
overflows into human emotion.
Try to imagine Jesus rejoicing in the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ joy was
perfect. As God, His unity with the Father and the Holy Spirit was
beyond anything we can imagine. Therefore, when He experienced the
perfection of spiritual joy, that joy overflowed into His perfect
human nature, resulting in an emotional response that was more
powerful than any of us will experience until the day we stand with
our resurrected bodies before the Beatific Vision in the New
Heavens and new Earth.
When Jesus prayed, “I give you praise, Father…,” He was not only
engaging in an intellectual exercise. He did not just make a public
statement so that it would be written in Scripture or because it
was the right thing to do. Rather, Jesus spoke His praises to the
Father because His lived human experience, in that moment, was a
human rejoicing with divine power. Jesus’ all-consuming joy was
perfectly ordered, deeply fulfilling, an appropriate response to
His Father and the Holy Spirit, and contagious to those around Him.
True spiritual joy is never contained; it overflows and touches the
lives of others.
By experiencing such joy in His human nature, Jesus further
elevated human nature itself, making it possible for us to rejoice
in the Holy Spirit with Him within our human souls, provided we
humble ourselves before Him. Jesus praised the Father for revealing
Himself to the childlike, those who are humble of heart. Seeing
that was the cause of His joy. To be childlike in the eyes of God
means to trust Him completely, to approach Him with openness and
wonder, and to depend on Him for all things. It is the opposite of
relying on our own understanding and wisdom, which often leads to
pride and distance from God.
True humility is nothing other than honesty with oneself before
God. Humility makes us childlike because it opens our eyes to the
truth that we are little spiritual children in need of God’s
fatherhood. If we pretend to be “wise and learned” before God, we
only reveal our foolishness, the absence of divine
wisdom.
Reflect today on the perfection of spiritual joy in Jesus’ divinity
and its emotional effect upon His humanity. No one has ever
rejoiced with the same joy as the Son of God. However, we are all
called to live within that spiritual joy. This joy strengthens us
in trials, deepens our love for others, and helps us live our faith
with greater conviction and authenticity. Humble yourself before
God today, begging for greater humility so that you will become a
greater partaker of Jesus’ joy, the joy He came to bestow upon the
world.
My humble Lord, You rejoiced as You saw Your Father reveal
hidden and divine mysteries to those who were humble of heart and
childlike. Please bestow Your grace upon me so that I will also
grow in divine wisdom, remaining humble and childlike, to fill Your
human soul with the deepest joy. Jesus, I trust in You.
Image: Sancta Trinitas by Lawrence OP, license CC BY-NC-ND
2.0.
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