160th Meditation
“Rejoice in the Lord, exult all you upright, shout for joy, you honest of heart” (Ps 31:11).
The joy in the Lord that the psalm acclaims here must inundate the righteous, for they strive to do the Will of God. It is in itself a source of joy to know God and to taste the wisdom of His commandments, as well as to walk in the path that the Father, in His goodness, has prepared for us.
“Rejoice in the Lord always” (Phil 4:4), St. Paul exhorts us. We hear this from a man tested by suffering, who in one of his letters gives us an idea of all that he had to suffer for the Lord’s sake (2 Cor 11:16-12:13). But evidently suffering does not prevent him from rejoicing in the Lord. Indeed, all the adversities that befall him become for him a source of joy.
A sincere heart is free to rejoice and to acclaim the Lord, because it is capable of recognizing God’s favors and attributing them to Him alone. Through praise, it is freed from the self-enclosure to which we often tend. Such a heart becomes discerning, and the more its spiritual eyes are opened to discover the wonders of God, the more its joy in Him grows.
But joy and praise do not relate only to the wonderful works of God, which He, in His goodness, bestows upon us in superabundance; but to the Person of God Himself. Our Father is the source of joy! To know Him is to live. We are flooded with joy for God, for what He truly is, for His deepest Being, for His glorious existence, without which nothing could exist.
Thus, we are destined to surrender ourselves to His overflowing love, which never runs out and which we will be able to enjoy unreservedly in eternity, together with the saints and angels, in constant and unceasing joy and blissful gladness.