The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen

Consider the shepherds, but do not dwell on their poverty or their hard life. Consider these shepherds – now joyful men. Men whose life just became something altogether different.

Joy!

Consider yourselves. Recall a moment from your life that was exceedingly joyful. A birthday party when you were four or five, your wedding day, the day of your ordination, the birth of a child, a promotion, the moment you first took the love of your life into your arms.

Joy!

What do you remember? What did those shepherds remember?

What we remember from the joyful moments of our lives is the moment itself.

We may recall a detail or two, the lighting of the room, a color, something nondescript. The detail itself is unimportant. Rather when we see a room lit in the same way, or run across that color, or other nondescript item, our joy is recalled.

The shepherds walked away giving no consideration to the details of shepherding or anything else. They were caught up in a moment of pure joy.

As Christians we are often accused of being somber, dwelling on weakness and sin, looking toward the day of our death. But that is not who we are. Rather we are the people Jeremiah describes – people who have been changed:

Then shall the maidens rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy

Joy!

Brothers and sisters,

It is as simple as that. Jesus Christ is our moment of joy. Jesus Christ is a moment in time as well as the eternal continuous moment.

The joy He brings is real in each moment, like the moment the shepherds found what the angels foretold. His joy is also everlasting.

For that reason our life is not a life of somber woe caught up in the dread of hellfire or eternal loneliness. It is a joyful life – a life changed forever.

Jesus’ entry into the world was meant for all of us – so that like the shepherds we might come to Him and worship Him in a moment of time. Then, like the shepherds, we are to walk away with eternal joy – returning, glorifying and praising God for all they we have heard and seen.

Our Catholic faith as lived and taught in the Polish National Catholic Church is faith that lives in a continuous moment of joy.

The joy we feel eclipses all else. Everything else exists only in relation to this continuous moment of joy.

The fourth of the Eleven Great Principles of the Polish National Catholic Church includes this statement:

The saving work of the Divine Mediator depends on this: that He reveals to man his primary and ultimate goal – eternal happiness; that God in His Divine compassion and righteousness will bind anew the severed ties between him and the Creator

Our joy is complete in this. That Jesus Christ came and bound us back to God.

Thus our journey to God is a journey defined by our renewed relationship with God; defined by eternal happiness which is in our present and in the continuous joy that awaits us.

Today’s psalm states:

The Lord is King; let the earth rejoice

So let us rejoice because our life has been changed into something altogether different. Our life is moving, moment by moment, to the perfection we will know in heaven. Our life is moving, moment by moment, in the continuous presence of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

The hardness of life and all else is of little account. It is of little account because we have joy. Everything we see and do is new because we see it in light of the joy we hold.

Recall this joy at least once each day. Recall, and when you do recall it, glorify and praise God for all you have heard and seen. We are no longer separate or apart from God. The shepherds saw this and they rejoiced.

So we rejoice – Jesus Christ has come. He is our joy and has bound us anew; bound us to God forever.

Amen.