THE ENEMIES OF JOY

One of my heroes is the late Henri Nouwen. He had a way of seeing through and into and beyond what most of us only see on the surface. A typical Nouwen observation: "The real enemies of our life are the 'oughts' and the 'ifs.' They pull us backward into the unalterable past and forward into the unpredictable future. But real life takes place in the here and now. God is a God of the present. God is always in the moment, be that moment hard or easy, joyful or painful."

In other words, God is Now. The past is always passed: it is unalterable. We can lament the past but we cannot do anything about it; and while we are lamenting, we are neither moving on into the future nor able to live in the present. And the only way to get to the future is through the present, through the now and the Now that is God. For it is only in and through God that we can overcome a past that wants to drag us back. It is only through God that we can live now so that we will not have to relive the past.

Of course, that is so much easier to say than to do. It is not easy to see the sun on a cloudy day, to see through the clouds to see the sun. Nouwen again: "I have a friend who radiates joy, not because life [the now] is easy, but because he habitually recognizes God's presence in the midst of all human suffering, his own as well as others'....My friend's joy is contagious. The more I am with him, the more I catch glimpses of the sun shining through the clouds. Yes, I know there is a sun, even though the skies are covered with clouds. While my friend always spoke about the sun, I kept thinking about the clouds, until one day I realized that it was the sun that allowed me to see the clouds. Those who keep speaking about the sun while walking under a cloudy sky are messengers of hope, the true saints of our day.

Thank God for those saints who help us to see the sun for the clouds. They are the ones who help us see those enemies of joy for what they are: enemies, that which would have us live under the cloud of the past and not see the sun that lights us and leads us to a brighter and better and God-filled future.

The reason that we can see the sun for the clouds is what we are about to celebrate: the events of Holy Week. It is our past sins that holds us back, that brings a cloud over the present, that makes the future look so bleak. It is also those sins that Jesus took and takes and continues to take away because of his death and resurrection. For if our sins are not or cannot be forgiven, then there is no future to hope in and the present is surely a time for doom and gloom.

Good Friday reminds us that the past is always and will always be past, that it cannot be undone but only forgiven. Easter reminds us that no matter how bad the past, there is always resurrection, there is always new life. The enemies of joy would have us believe that we cannot be or are forgiven, would have us believe that resurrection only takes place in final death. Holy Week reminds us that we can and must always speak of the sun because the Son of God is the One whose life, death and resurrection allows us to be able to see the sun shine even on the cloudiest of days.