“Go, eat rich foods and drink sweet drinks, and allot portions to those who had nothing prepared; for today is holy to our LORD. Do not be saddened this day, for rejoicing in the LORD must be your strength!” – Nehemiah 8:10
One of the great lies of our time is that saints are sad. People see their pious faces in statues or stained-glass windows and wrongly assume that holiness means being unhappy. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Pope Francis explained this fact in his Angelus address on December 14, 2014:
No one has ever heard of a sad saint with a mournful face. This is unheard of! It would be a contradiction. The Christian’s heart is filled with peace because he knows how to place his joy in the Lord even when going through the difficult moments in life. To have faith does not mean to never have difficult moments but to have the strength to face those moments knowing that we are not alone. And this is the peace that God gives to his children.
As the Holy Father has illustrated, the joy of saints comes from a hope rooted in something – or rather Someone – beyond this world. They know that nothing here on earth will fully satisfy them. They accept the fact that the pilgrimage of this life will not be pain-free, and they trust that the Lord will be with them every step of the way.
Such faith and endurance is pretty heroic. The world thinks that following Jesus is a dreary job for boring people, but winning the crown of eternal life is far from dull. We must re-write the narrative. The saints were daring, gritty adventurers. They all were on a mission for Heaven, a quest to love the Lord and love one another at any cost. Many suffered publicly and even more suffered privately for the glory of His Name and the good of their neighbors.
Such great adventures are only undertaken because of great love, and nothing makes someone more joyful than being madly in love. Indeed, saints are joyful precisely because they have fallen in love with God. Saint Augustine expressed it like this: “To fall in love with God is the greatest of romances, to seek Him the greatest adventure, to find Him the greatest human achievement.”
So, go ahead, fall in Love. And buckle up, because it is going to be one exciting, challenging, and sanctifying ride.
Lord, deliver us from the gloom of doubt and despair. Give us the courage to follow your Son, and in His Name, fill our hearts with joy. Amen.