8/12/2018

Dear Sisters and Friends

Hope, Joy, and Peace!  How do these words resonate today in us and in those who surround us? Dare we believe them?

The world is sick and there are many legitimate reasons to cry, to feel hopeless: violence is on the increase everywhere...rejection of those who come to meet us in their suffering is a harsh reality… the planet is being destroyed…As Pope Francis reminds us, ‘Whenever our interior life becomes caught up in its own interests and concerns, there is no longer room for others, no place for the poor. God’s voice is no longer heard, the quiet joy of his love is no longer felt, and the desire to do good fades’ (Joy of the Gospel 2).

However, each year during this time of Advent, words of hope come along and touch us, at the heart of these realities. The Lord says to us: ‘The days are coming when I will fulfil the good promise, I made to my people…   I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line’ (Jer 33;14-16) ... ‘the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces.’ (Is25:8)

More than ever, Advent and Christmastide call us to conversion and an act of faith in order to receive the joy that God is offering us. Christian joy is a choice: we cultivate joy, we decide, we choose to live in joy, because we dwell in the infinite love of the Father and we are freed and saved by Christ. Christian joy is not a flash in the pan nor a feeling, but an indescribable force which enables us to turn towards others.

At the heart of our world in disarray, Christian joy is not naïve nor is it illusory. Pope Francis, in his Apostolic Exhortation, Rejoice and Be Glad, Chapter 4 on the characteristics of holiness in today’s world, speaks of joy and humour: ‘…the saints are joyful and full of good humour. Though completely realistic, they radiate a positive and hopeful spirit.’ (122) Further on, he continues:  ‘Hard times may come, when the cross casts its shadow, yet nothing can destroy the supernatural joy that “adapts and changes, but always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved” That joy brings deep security, serene hope and a spiritual fulfilment that the world cannot understand or appreciate.’ (125)

In order to taste this interior joy, we must allow this mystery of God-with-us to change our outlook in order to recognise his active presence at the heart of our lives and our world. God comes to meet our humanity in the most mundane and in the most exciting moments – our human condition complete with its frailty and burdens ... God became man so that the divine life should permeate all that is human. (Spirituality book p44)

Joy is a gift and a fruit of the Holy Spirit rooted in the certainty of being loved and this faith in the love of the Father is a source of unconquerable hope and quiet serenity; it arouses in us dynamism and a calm boldness (cf Const 4:2).  It is through joy, the fruit of the experience of the love of God, that we can humbly continue to change the world wherever we are,  whatever our state of life: whether we are still active, or in a retirement home, in a nursing home, on our sick bed, in our families, in our places of work, in our parishes…. There is no place where we cannot be bearers of the Good News. ‘Let us allow Christ to continue his Incarnation in each one of us. We have to allow the Spirit to ‘mould Christ within us’ to continue his life on earth’ (Spirituality book p43).

May the celebration of Christmas strengthen us and be a source of hope for each one of us, may the Joy of Christ live in us and accompany us throughout the coming year.

                                  With my very best wishes and prayer

                                               Sister Josette Bijloos

                                               Superior General