Joy in Every Land

In celebration of Easter this week I'd like to share this video featuring one of my favorite musical pieces, J.S. Bach's Cantata 51, "Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen" ("Rejoice in God in Every Land"). From the time I first heard this piece many years ago I've been drawn to its spontaneous sense of joy and exultation, a feeling that has always resonated with my faith in God.

In a special way this Easter I would like to offer this song as a meditation of thanksgiving for the joy I feel at finally being free to be who I really am. For so long I thought I had to pretend to be something I wasn't in order to win God's and other people's love and acceptance. But now that I know that I'm loved for who I really am I feel like I in fact can "rejoice in every land," as the song suggests. Now, this doesn't mean that every moment is easy or that life isn't without its pain, sorrow, or challenges. On the contrary, these things all continue for me as they do for all of us in this life. What's different now, however, is that the place deep inside me where I know who I really am is no longer hidden or covered up. Instead, it's open and free to feel both the ups and downs of life knowing that I really am loved at the deepest core of my being. In other words, I'm no longer phoning in my life through the filter of what or how I think I'm supposed to be - it's actually me who's living and experiencing what's going on in and around me and who can respond from who I really am. To me that's what this song is about - that there's a joy that's deeper than mere happiness and bigger than any sadness we may feel and that's available to us at every moment of our lives, if only we learn to claim it.

In a way, it reminds me of an insight I once read in a book of meditations by the Trappist monk Thomas Merton. He said that the deepest ground of our heart - the place where we are who we really are - is precisely the place where God finds us and we find our connection to God. I feel fortunate this Easter to know that place within myself a little more deeply and to find there the surprising, unmistakable love of the God who created us and is always at our side. To me that's the joy in every land, in every circumstance, and in every age that can truly change the world.

Peace,

Padre Chuck