Radość jest ojczyzną

Jan W. GÓRA, OP

Klasztor OO. Dominikanów, ul. Kościuszki 99, 51−716 Poznań, Poland , Polska

Abstrakt

In the current essay, the author analyzes various planes of joy in human life, its various causes and manifestations. Joy as such springs from a virtuous, fulfilled life, it is a fruit of life’s spiritual dimension. For a Christian, the ultimate source of joy lies in the truths of the faith, in particular in the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God and in the opportunity to encounter him in the Eucharist. The joy of the faith is the greatest of all joys, because it enables perception of the earthly reality in the light of the promises of Christ and the recognition of one’s vocation as the path set by Christ. Christ himself expects his followers to rejoice. One can also speak about the joy of encounter, the joy of verbal exchange or the joy of waiting, which is also the measure of love. Indeed, the encounters described in the Bible always cause a radical transformation of those who are their subjects. A particular kind of joy is found in knowledge: intelligence is fruitful only in so far as it is accompanied by joy. Another category of joy embraces the emotional and sensual qualities the human being experiences as a biological organism. Due to their contact with the realm of spirit, human emotions are nobler than those of animals. Still another cause of joy is provided by material goods. As a rational creature, the human being should order his or her pursuit for joy, giving priority to the joys in which the spiritual element prevails. The richest sources of joy are inherent in human beings themselves since joy is a faithful «companion» to any good action. A source of pure and beautiful joy can be found in friendship due to its characteristics, namely, kindness and reciprocity. A great source of joy is spousal love. Aristotle distinguished a separate virtue, eutrapelia, which consists in good wit. Its task is to keep a balance of the joys the human being experiences. In Christian ethics, the foundation of joy is peace resulting from the orderliness of the soul, which, by virtue of love, adjusts the human will to the will of God. Freedom, above all inner, personal and moral freedom, provides a probably most significant source of joy in earthly life. Similar in the context of earthly life is the role of beauty, in particular of moral beauty and of the one that results from truth, of the one that was not created by the human mind, but assimilated by way of cognition. Indeed, absorbing truth, the fullness of which is in Christ, is a reason why one should rejoice with love, which is the way towards the everlasting bliss. Mary, the Mother of God, is called the cause of all our joy, because she shows human beings the way towards the ultimate unity with God, to seeing him face to face in eternity.

 

Summarized by Cezary Ritter
Translated by Dorota Chabrajska

Słowa kluczowe:

joy, rejoicing, bliss, love, Christ, Eucharist, Aristotle, eutrapelia