Joy and Suffering

Joy is at the start of the Christian story where the angel greets Mary with the cry “Rejoice so highly favoured” and the angels sing of joy at the Saviour’s birth. Yet Jesus is the ‘man of sorrows’. Paradoxically joy and sorrow come together at the cross, for sacrifice is a moment both of sorrow – obviously, for it involves deep suffering – but also of joy for it is the moment of truth, of salvation, and of entry into the highest transcendent level. In the Gospel of St John it is presented as the moment of triumph when Jesus cries out “It is accomplished”. It is the moment when blessing is poured out on the world, beginning with Jesus’ own mother who stand nearest the cross.

Joy and sorrow are no longer two but one, no longer exclusive but mutual.

The cross is planted at the heart of the Trinity. It is divine.