The Joy Connection
Lynne Elwinger, O.C.D.
The scripture I read recently at my aunt’s funeral, from Isaiah, chapter 61, has continued to stay with me. A part of that reading contains God’s assurance that we will be given beauty for ashes and the oil of joy for mourning. My reflections on the connection between beauty and joy have given birth to this article. One dictionary defines beauty as an appearance or sound that gives rise to a strong, contemplative delight. I found no particularly good definition for the word joy, but only synonyms such as gladness, happiness, or similar words. Perhaps contemplative delight is joy, or perhaps in fact, joy is not readily definable in words but only in the experience of it.
When the human soul meets the soul in another, in nature, in music or art or literature, that experience can be one of true beauty, an encounter with the Divine. Our spontaneous response is often an inner joy that wells up and overflows back into the world around us. Joy, I observed, both creates and bears fruit. You and I and all of creation may, very simply, be the result of God’s own overflowing joy. Perhaps we could say with some accuracy, “In the beginning was Joy…”. Joy rushed forth upon the earth and the resulting beauty is still unfolding. Created from joy, we find that our own joys carry us homeward to God’s heart, and connect us to all of God’s other joy-seeds sprouting into life around us. Beauty continually births joy into our world, and our moments of response are sacred moments. The Divine-human encounter always seems to carry with it an R.S.V.P.! I found myself wondering what response we might be being invited to make to our God, the Source of all joy and beauty. If we truly wished to deepen our relationship with the Holy One, it seemed that trying to encourage the presence of joy in our lives would be a good way to begin.
Finding The Joy Connection
Joy is the soul’s electricity, freely available from our divine Source. Finding the joy connection may be the most important task of our lives. In our physical world, the same invisible electrical current can power many diverse functions – bringing light, running motors, giving an organ voice, providing heating and cooling, cooking food, and more. For all this to happen, three things are needed: a source of current, the means of plugging in, and appliances capable of receiving the current. When all three are present in good working order, we have only to turn on a switch for the current to do its work. The same is true with the soul’s electricity, God’s joy-energy.
We are born with built-in connector switches. All we have to do is to leave them open to receive the divine current of joy, accessible to us in every time and place. This sounds easy, doesn’t it! But somehow we have to be able to recognize the presence of this power, and to know how our switches work, before we can consistently plug in. Beauty (whatever that is for each of us) can flip our switches spontaneously. This seems to be a divine hint that the joy-current exists and that beauty is somehow a means of connecting with it. Once we understand this and access the joy, we become charged with the mission of making God’s joy visible in our world.
Our own inner joy and the beauty we create in our lives as a result of being connected, make visible in the world around us the invisible current of joy present everywhere. Without lamps, we wouldn’t know that electricity gives light. Without motors, we wouldn’t know the power it carries. We are called to be the lamps and motors of God’s joy in the world. The more connected we ourselves are, the more visible the joy becomes, and the more others are drawn to find their own connections with the Source of this joy. We become a type of conduit of joy for the world. Notice in your own life that when you are electrified with joy, for whatever reason, the joy spreads to all around you. Joy is contagious! Though what each of us finds beautiful and joy-producing can be quite unique to us, the joy itself is universally understood.
The Source Is Limitless
Our contemplative lives, wherever we are living them, focus on deepening and strengthening our own connections. This, in turn, makes it easier for others to plug in. We are all on the same “grid” of God’s joy-current, and it seems that our own intensity of connection helps to create a type of magnetic field of attraction which draws others to notice their own opportunities to plug into the current.
The divine energy Source, like the energy of the sun, can power all things at once. The Source energy capacity is limitless. This is a big contrast to our manufactured energy sources, whose limited capacities allow only so much available energy, often not enough to meet all the existing needs. Our usage of the energy of divine joy in our lives never diminishes the supply available for others. There are never any power outages.
We are not separated or isolated from others or from the web of life of the earth. All that we feel, do, or say affects the whole world. If we had a clear idea of how our “private” thoughts and emotions impact the whole world, we would no doubt be impelled to change our way of living. Negative energy currents, like the joy current, are also invisible, traveling near and far, and have effects of which we are unaware. When we are connected to God’s joy, we are at the same time adding to the transformation of the world. When we allow our own joy to be diminished, the world’s experience of joy is also thereby diminished. We are called to be Joy-bearers, even in difficult circumstances. Perhaps this is one way of understanding the scriptural call to offer the sacrifice of praise.
When We Find A Lack Of Joy
If we try to live consciously, we will begin to take daily stock of the energies with which we choose to connect. The choice is always our own. When we find a lack of joy in the present moment, we can seek out the forms of beauty that we know will move our hearts to joy again. We can also do something that brings joy to another, even when we aren’t totally connected ourselves. What response can we make? We can strive to stay open to beauty and to share our joy on our journey into the heart of God.
Sr. Lynne Thérèse Elwinger of the Resurrection O.C.D.