Christian joy

And ever since then the Christian religion has been a religion of joy. There is no room for long faces among Christians.  Our Lord Jesus Christ is risen and alive.  He is stronger than all things, stronger than sin and stronger than death, and by his Crucifixion and Resurrection he has saved us from the power both of sin and death, and has won for us forgiveness and eternal life.  No wonder at Easter time we all sing Alleluia, that is, Praise the Lord, as a great shout of joy.

That, too, is why the Eucharist is a service of joy.  For in the Eucharist Our Risen Lord is present in our midst, as we are reminded when the priest says or sings, “The peace of the Lord be always with you” (1), which is the Risen Lord’s Easter greeting to his own. (2) And when we make our Communion we actually receive Our Lord himself in his Risen Body in the Blessed Sacrament.  So before the Eucharist begins the priest and servers say, “I will go unto the altar of God; even unto the God of my joy and gladness”.

Our Lord’s life in Heaven now is a life of joy, and if we love him and are true to him, we shall share his joy in this life and shall enter into the joy of Our Lord in the next (Hebrews 12:2; Matthew 25:21).