Expecting joy

Bishop Scott Bullock
The Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 6, 2025

At the birthday party that I attended last year, one of the celebrity children was having fun with one of his cousins. The cousin picked up the birthday boy, who was “terrible two” at that time, lifted him up and tossed him in the air, caught him, and then tried to set the boy down, to which the delighted two-year-old said, “Do it again!”  

The cousin obliged, after which the child said again. “Do it again!” Up he went, a third time, and even before he rested back on earth, he shouted out with delight, “Yes, do it again.” 

It was about this time that the cousin began to realize what a terrible thing he had created, and when the cousin finally collapsed in exhaustion, the tot showed a bit of his “terrible” and was not happy that the fun had ended. He wanted more! “Do it again!”

While it is certainly the case that we delight with the sheer joy of a child with simple pleasures like being tossed in the air, us older folks after some experience of living, harbor in our hearts that life is not meant to be about joy all the time. Things happen that aren’t joyful, aren’t they? Life happens. And when life happens, we are tempted to conclude that life is not only about joy. And in that we would be mistaken. 

For, in today’s scriptures, we discover that life is always and forever about one joy after another. What’s that mean? In the first reading, we see through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord himself tells us to “rejoice!”  Why? He continues, “When you see the comfort of the Lord, your heart shall rejoice and your bodies flourish like the grass; the Lord’s power shall be known to his servants.” 

In other words, the result of knowing the comfort of the Lord and knowing the power of the Holy Spirit is joy.

Next, the psalm response, “Let all the earth cry out to God with joy!” is the necessary response when we have seen God’s works.  

And then finally, in the Gospel, we hear that the disciples, having been sent out to heal the sick, return, and having seen God’s power over evil spirits, are told by Jesus, “do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” 

Jesus plainly tells us that our joy is rooted in the truth that our “names are written in heaven.” In other words, we know the fullness of life in eternity, of course, and it will be characterized by complete joy. The fact that we don’t know this perfect joy in this world is not because life isn’t always about joy, but because life is not yet complete—for complete life will only be known in eternity. But, when we live fully in this world, we see the works of God, serve the Lord as he asks us to do by loving our neighbor, we ought to expect a foretaste of the joy in this life that will reach its fullness in eternity. 

And while our imperfect living of life means life in this fallen world will not always be joyful, it is clear that if we have no joy, we are not living according to the Lord’s plans for he has created us for joy, and we ought to know the foretaste of this often. So, the barometer of joy tells us the quality of our living. And, if we live without much joy, a re-correction of course is required — back towards the works of God and the service of God. So you want more joy? Come to God and serve God — the single source of joy for which our hearts were created and for which we long!

So, it turns out, the birthday boy was right! For Jesus has taught that, unless we become like children — expecting joy — we will not enter the Kingdom of God. Life is meant to be one joy after another! But, while we might become exhausted bringing joy to others, let’s remember that we’re not the ultimate source of joy anyway. The joys of the Lord are never exhausted. That’s where we find complete joy. 

And when we gather here, as we “do this in remembrance” of the Lord, we say in a certain sense, “Do it again, Lord.” Pour the delights of your life into our hearts, as we await the perfect, unending joys of eternal life, where in his mercy, God will pile joy upon joy. As we hear in the words of St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, we will “Rejoice in the Lord always.  I say it again: Rejoice!” For the reason for which we created is for joy!  Even now, let us come to the Lord and let the joy of him be renewed in us.