The disciples were filled with joy, excited about their power to set people free from demons. But Jesus cautioned them to rejoice not so much for the power they had received, but for the love they had received, “because your names are written in heaven”. As new Israel they were “the house of God”, to them was given an experience of God’s love, but also the possibility of sharing that love “like a star shining among the clouds, like the full moon at the festal season” (Sir. 50,6). 

 

And this experience is a cause of “peace and mercy to all who follow the Gospel, to the Church of God”. 

 

This experience is motive for gratitude and joy in the heart of Jesus. Luke saw this jubilation in a perspective of the Trinitarian communion: “Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit”, turning to the Father and praising him. This moment of deep joy springs from Jesus’ immense filial love for his Father, Lord of heaven and earth, who hid these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to the childlike. God has both hidden and revealed, and in this prayer of praise it is his revealing which stands out. 

 

What is it that God has revealed and hidden? The mysteries of his Kingdom, the manifestation of divine lordship in Jesus and the victory over Satan. God has hidden this from those who are all too full of themselves and who claim to know everything already. They are blinded by their presumptuousness and they leave no room for God. 

 

One can easily think of some of Jesus’ contemporaries whom he repeatedly admonished, but the danger is one that always exists and concerns us too. 

The “little ones”, for their part, are the humble, the simple, the poor, the marginalized, those without voice, those weary and burdened, whom Jesus pronounced “blessed”. We readily think of Mary, Joseph, the fishermen of Galilee and the disciples whom Jesus called as he went preaching.

 

“Yes, Father, for such has been your gracious will”. These words of Jesus must be understood as referring to his inner exultation. The word “gracious” describes the Father’s saving and benevolent plan for humanity: “how splendid God was” and God is. It was this divine graciousness that made Jesus rejoice, for the Father willed to love people with the same love that he has for his Son. 

 

Luke also alludes to the similar exultation of Mary: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit exults in God my Savior”. This is the Good News that leads to salvation. Mary, bearing in her womb Jesus, the evangelizer par excellence, met Elizabeth and rejoiced in the Holy Spirit as she sang her Magnificat. Jesus, seeing the success of his disciples’ mission and their resulting joy, rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and addressed his Father in prayer. 

 

In both cases, it is joy for the working of “saving the people from ruin”, for the love with which the Father loves his Son comes down to us, he is at the right hand of the Church and through the Holy Spirit fills us and grants us a share in the trinitarian life.

 

The Father is the source of joy. The Son is its manifestation, and the Holy Spirit its unction and scent. Immediately after praising the Father, so the evangelist Matthew tells us, Jesus says: “Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest…. The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness. With Christ joy is constantly born anew.

The Virgin Mary had a unique experience of this encounter with Jesus, and thus became “causa nostrae laetitiae”. The disciples, for their part, received the call to follow Jesus and to be sent by him to preach the Gospel (cf. Mk 3:14), and so they were filled with joy. 

 

Why shouldn’t we too enter this flood of joy?

 

“The great danger in today’s world, pervaded as it is by consumerism, is the desolation and anguish born of a complacent yet covetous heart, the feverish pursuit of frivolous pleasures, and a blunted conscience” (Evangelii Gaudium, 2). 

 

Humanity greatly needs to lay hold of the salvation brought by Christ. His disciples are those who allow themselves to be seized ever more by the love of Jesus and marked by the fire of passion for the Kingdom of God and the proclamation of the joy of the Gospel. All of us disciples of Christ we are called to nurture the joy of evangelization. 

 

Many parts of the world are experiencing a dearth of vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life. Often this is due to the absence of contagious apostolic joy in communities which lack enthusiasm and thus fail to attract. The joy of the Gospel is born of the encounter with Christ and from sharing with the poor.  Wherever there is joy, enthusiasm and a desire to bring Christ to others, genuine vocations arise. 

 

Dear Sisters on your feast let you not be robbed of the joy of evangelization! I invite you to immerse yourself in the joy of the Gospel and nurture a love that can light up your vocation and your mission. I urge each of you to recall, as if you were making an interior pilgrimage, that “first love” with which the Lord Jesus Christ warmed your heart, not for the sake of nostalgia but in order to persevere in joy.