Holy Sorrow & Joy
“...Neither our own suffering nor that of others must be allowed to blind us to the splendor of sunlight, to the beauty of the sky and the stars; to the bliss of loving and being loved; to the greatness of the truths we may penetrate.
...Let us admit, though, that God may burden us with a cross — such as the loss of one who is dearest to us — which withers up all joy about creaturely things in our heart, and transforms our life into a pure via cruces. Even then, however, our supernatural joy because of God and because of the glory that awaits us in eternity and is the object of our wistful hope must remain alive in us, and keep its primacy.
...In brief, a true Christian must not live in a way as though Christ had never spoken the words, ‘Blessed are they that mourn,’ but even less in a way as though He had not also said to His disciples, ‘Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is great in heaven.’ The Christian knows: ‘Pain and suffering are only there for the sake of joy.’ (Heribert Holzapfel)
The tissue of a Christian’s life must be interwoven with threads of true joy and threads of true sorrow alike, because we have not yet arrived at the point ‘where God shall wipe away all tears.’ But it is joy that must have the primacy: for, after the lumen Christi has brightened the world, even on earth there is incomparably more cause for bliss than for sorrow. Joy must be the deeper, the decisive element, the form of our life, as it were. For that which warrants our joy is the supreme reality, the ultimate word in the universe. The sufferings of this world are essentially transitory. Happiness, eternal and indestructible, awaits all those who follow Christ.”
~Dietrich von Hildebrand
...Let us admit, though, that God may burden us with a cross — such as the loss of one who is dearest to us — which withers up all joy about creaturely things in our heart, and transforms our life into a pure via cruces. Even then, however, our supernatural joy because of God and because of the glory that awaits us in eternity and is the object of our wistful hope must remain alive in us, and keep its primacy.
...In brief, a true Christian must not live in a way as though Christ had never spoken the words, ‘Blessed are they that mourn,’ but even less in a way as though He had not also said to His disciples, ‘Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is great in heaven.’ The Christian knows: ‘Pain and suffering are only there for the sake of joy.’ (Heribert Holzapfel)
The tissue of a Christian’s life must be interwoven with threads of true joy and threads of true sorrow alike, because we have not yet arrived at the point ‘where God shall wipe away all tears.’ But it is joy that must have the primacy: for, after the lumen Christi has brightened the world, even on earth there is incomparably more cause for bliss than for sorrow. Joy must be the deeper, the decisive element, the form of our life, as it were. For that which warrants our joy is the supreme reality, the ultimate word in the universe. The sufferings of this world are essentially transitory. Happiness, eternal and indestructible, awaits all those who follow Christ.”
~Dietrich von Hildebrand
Comments