Fr. Frank Majka, SJ – The Bridge

God’s Christmas Joy

Christmas is a time of great joy. Joy runs through the whole season. Mary joyfully sings God’s praise when she visits Elizabeth, angels bring the shepherds “news of great joy which will be to all the people” and one of our Christmas carols begins, “Joy to the world. The Lord has come!”

But doesn’t it seem strange that we seldom talk about God’s joy? Yet if God so loved us as to send us the Second Person of the Trinity in order to share his divinity with us and save us, it seems only right to believe that the Three-Person God is filled with great joy and deep satisfaction as they see their desire and plan for us and our world begin to unfold in time. So, if heaven and earth and shepherds and angels rejoice, wouldn’t God?

Perhaps we feel that such language makes God too much like us. But we believe that God made us in his own image. So it seems clear that we are not mistaken if we think that our own Christmas joy comes from and shares in the deep joy that fills the heart of God.