Joy in spite of a world pandemic

It is very dark indeed to hear all the troubles with the coronavirus pandemic and the fear it brought to the minds and hearts of people in the world.
Today's  Gospel reading (Saturday March 28, 2020):

Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said,
“This is truly the Prophet.”
Others said, “This is the Christ.”
But others said, “The Christ will not come from Galilee, will he?
Does not Scripture say that the Christ will be of David’s family
and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”
So a division occurred in the crowd because of him.
Some of them even wanted to arrest him,
but no one laid hands on him.

So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees,
who asked them, “Why did you not bring him?”
The guards answered, “Never before has anyone spoken like this man.”
So the Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived?
Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?
But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed.”
Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them,
“Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him
and finds out what he is doing?”
They answered and said to him,
“You are not from Galilee also, are you?
Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”

Then each went to his own house.

The Jesuit Holy Father Pope Francis celebrated Mass in his chapel. It was magnificent. In his homily on the Gospel reading (John 7:40-53), he impressed me beyond measure. The entire Mass can be seen here. If you are not able to watch the entire Mass, at least listen to his homily and reflect upon it.

The Jesuit scholar Fr. Robert Spitzer had written about true happiness and spoke about it. Watch him here. 

I also remembered a great homily on joy by the Jesuit scholar Fr. Henri Boulad in 2014.

In spite of spiritual sickness and weakness with the temptations of materialist attractions by the media that surround me, I turned to the homily delivered in French by the Jesuit scholar Fr. Henri Boulad, S.J. on the first Sunday of Advent. I heard the magnificent and beautiful story of God which I wish to share here. Henri Boulad took his point of departure from Isaiah 63: 19 "Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down..." This reading, in which Isaiah cries out to God, is very moving, said Boulad. "You, who created heavens and earth, are enthroned in the seventh heaven, inaccessible. For God to be God he must be the Most High, inaccessible One. This the God of the Greeks, the God of Pagans, the God of Muslims and, to some extent, the God of the Old Testament. Except that in the Old Testament we discern a God that is close, a God that descends, is interested in Man, and speaks to Man. There is already in the Old Testament a development in the way in which God prepares Man for the revelation of the incarnation of Jesus Christ." This cry for God to rend the heavens and come down - Is it possible? Is it possible that the Most High becomes the Most 'debased' a theme taken up by Christian Bobin in his book "Le Très-Bas"? questions Boulad. 

"Jesus is a revelation. Jesus is a revolution" says the Jesuit scholar Henri Boulad. But what kind of revolution? "Jesus empties heaven and moves the [Divine presence] to be among us: Emmanuel." and continues "Is it possible that God makes such a radical move? I have a response here to our Muslim brothers who think it is impossible. For them God cannot descend from heaven without losing his honor and dignity."

Now listen carefully because here Henri Boulad summarizes the Christian Mystery in as simple language as possible "If Jesus Christ is an illusion...If Christianity is a sheer mystification...If God did not come to us and did not descend from his heaven...If he did not take the radical and seemingly impossible leap of the incarnation, then he ceases being credible - he ceases being love - he ceases being God."

Let us reflect. Here is the message: 

"The scandal of the Incarnation, which means that we cannot believe that God could debase himself , becomes the key and the supreme proof  that this is the truth"

"But a God in heaven well served who looks to me and says 'You suffer. Have courage. Perhaps one day you will be with me in my heaven' is not God. A God who says 'Patience. I am fine here but you over there can suffer' is not God. This is the false God that we, often, figure that he sends us prophets from time to time to console us' . NO, NO. NO. This God who looks to me with a telescope is not my God. I do not want him."

"If there is a phenomenon of atheism today in the West as well as in Egypt, it is precisely because men say we are in fact better than God. The walk that I walk to help when I see a hungry person or a thirsty one or a person without faith, can't God do it? Has he no choice regarding his honor?"

"No. He did it. This is the supreme proof of the Christian Mystery. Do not look somewhere else. 'Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down...' He descended. No more seventh heaven..."

"The only God I can believe, love and worship is the God Jesus Christ because he descended to me."

"'Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down...' "

And the great preacher and Jesuit scholar Henri Boulad finished here his homily.