Homily outline: Awe Leading to Joy

• When was the last time you stood in awe of something?
  • Can you think of such a moment? Were you watching a sunrise or sunset? Were you looking into the face of a newborn? Were you gazing at the majesty of a mountain range or the vastness of the ocean?
  • Have you experienced awe in your relationship with God?
  • Have we lost the ability to be amazed?
  • The challenges we confront in life often strip us of our joy
  • Experiencing awe allows us to see beyond what is right before us
• We are emotional creatures
  • Past experiences, and the emotions felt in those experiences, can have an influence in the present moment
    • If someone has hurt us in the past, we may feel mistrust in future relationships
    • If fear has ever consumed you, you might have skepticism about experiencing something new
    • If we live with shame from your past, it might be hard to experience peace
  • Our emotional response in a situation can be immediate, rendering us feeling as though we don’t have a choice
  • But we can cultivate a different emotional response and this takes practice
• St. Paul offers a model
  • Paul was someone who faced many challenges
  • Paul was not perfect, but he embraced God’s call to do something new with his life
  • Peace and mercy, as Paul indicates, are spiritual gifts promised to those who embrace a relationship with Jesus Christ
• Joy is a way of life for Christian disciples
  • Evangelii Gaudium (EG) offers great teaching here (https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html)
  • Our encounters with Jesus can set us free from “sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness” (EG, 1)
  • “An evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral” (EG, 10)
  • Like St. Paul, even with the challenges of life and discipleship, we can choose to approach our life as disciples in a spirit of joy
    • 2 Corinthians 11:24-28—Lashes, imprisonment, shipwrecks, etc.
    • And still, Paul chooses joy!
• Look with awe-filled eyes
  • Finding joy in the “little things of life” can assist us in choosing joy in moments that it doesn’t seem to be our natural response (EG, 4)
  • Cultivating gratitude in all circumstances helps us come to a place of believing that God is always with us
  • Awe can help make our lives better https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/eight_reasons_why_awe_makes_your_life_better
  • Living in joy takes practice, and the more we do it the more likely it is that fear, shame, and other negative emotions will no longer be our emotional response to what life throws at us
  • The deeper our relationship with Jesus the more we can live in awe of the unrelenting mercy, the unbridled grace, and the unconditional love God desires
    to share with us
  • Living in such awe for who God is and what God does will bring us to a place of unspeakable joy
  • Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit—it is a gift shared and a way of life that we can choose for ourselves and bestow upon others
  • Much like St. Paul, choosing to live in joy for ourselves is our gift to share with the communities in which we find ourselves