Mountain of Joy
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3 June 1990
Santiago, Chile

My dear Young People,

We are standing on the Mountain of Joy. The first sentiment I would like to express to you is the joy that is in my heart to see so many of you gathered here. You rejoice together because you have received into your hearts the Holy Spirit, Him Who is called the first gift of God to those who believe in Jesus Christ. It is a coincidence that we should be gathered here together on Pentecost Day, the feast day of the Holy Spirit. Let us greet Him together with the salutation which the Church likes to use as a welcome to the Holy Spirit, "Come, Holy Spirit." With our hearts and lips let us three times make Him welcome: "Come, Holy Spirit."

When the Holy Spirit comes into a person's heart through baptism, He does not come with empty hands. When you visit a friend's house on a special occasion, you will bring a gift. The Spirit of God brings not one gift, but seven gifts. He also brings a variety of fruits. St. Paul in one of his letters lists some of the fruits. They are: joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, love and self-control. (cf. Gal 5:22).

So you see that one of those fruits is joy. If you have joy in your heart, that is a sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit in your heart. You yourselves have discovered that, for I was impressed when I heard you say that a Christian who is sad is a sad Christian. That phrase reminded me of a prayer which one of the great saints of your nation, St. Teresa of Avila, a very joyful person, once made. She wrote: "May the Lord deliver us from sad saints." I think, too, of another person, not from Spain, not a saint, and not a Christian by conviction, who said once with acidity: "If Christians really believe that they have been redeemed by Christ, they certainly do not show their joy in the way they live."

The joy of which I speak is not a superficial thing. Some of the people who present advertisements on our television screens will smile at us and tell us that with this or that new commodity we will experience new joy in our lives. Often we do not believe them and often, too, we know that the smile on their faces is somewhat artificial. It is not necessarily an expression of joy.

There is another curious thing about joy: it can live quite peaceably with suffering. Have you ever visited someone in the hospital who was suffering much but whose presence radiated a quiet joy? No doubt some of you have visited poor and needy people who had not much more than the essentials of life, but who communicated to you contentment and joy. Clearly, such people have received from the Spirit of God a generous portion of that fruit which we call joy.

In the market of life you will meet many vendors of joy. All of them will offer to increase joy in your life. Unfortunately, many of the vendors will offer you spurious articles, a species of joy which is not authentic or lasting. The joy they offer is like a fruit which looks ripe and attractive, but when tasted is bitter and perhaps already decayed. Drugs can give a momentary sensation of joy; so, too, can the gratification of sexual powers outside the loving relationship of marriage. In our hearts, however, we know that such joy is not authentic nor lasting. It is not one of the fruits which has the authentic mark of the Holy Spirit upon it.

If we wish to increase joy in our hearts, there is no market in this world where it can be bought. We cannot even borrow it from another person, even when we meet someone who seems to have a plentiful supply of it. The truth is that joy is a by-product. If you want to make plastic material, you must first have oil. If you want to have joy in your life, if you want to increase joy in your life, then look to charity. For joy and peace are two by-products of charity. Throw away a little bit of yourself for the sake of another person, and you will find that you will slowly be suffused by a glow of joy. I do not say that it will not cost you something to do this. Often it will be painful and difficult to help another person who is needy or poor or unreasonable or selfish. Sometimes you will feel that you have lost something of yourself. And so often you have. But did not Jesus Christ say that the person who loses his life, because of the love he has for Christ, will find it? What you will find will not be what you have thrown away in love, but will be an increase of joy in your heart. That increase of joy will come directly from Jesus Christ, working through the Holy Spirit, His first gift to those who believe in Him. "These things," said Jesus Christ on the night before He threw away His life for us, "I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full." (Jn 15:11).

My dear young people, we stand on the Mountain of Joy--so called, as you have told me, because of the joy the pilgrims of old experienced when they caught their first sight of the Cathedral after months, perhaps, of travel. Strengthened by the Spirit of God, be pilgrims of joy as you move along the road of life. You will have joy in your heart if, on your pilgrim ways, you keep your eyes and your hearts open to those who, because of injustice, poverty, sickness, or addiction, are lying on the road, wounded and half-dead. Try to lift them up and find them shelter. In doing so, you will be acting as did that good Samaritan whom we know as Jesus Christ. May He, with our Father in Heaven and the Holy Spirit, be praised forever.

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