Glad Tidings of Good Joy

As Finals creeps slowly closer--in my mind I always quote WB Yeats' The Second Coming "And what rough beast its hour come round at last, /Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born." It is a strange paradoxical time. Things become harder, eating, sleeping, not being grouchy, the world is darker. Pressures mount. Anyone who thinks teachers are fine at finals has no idea of that which they speak. I have been grading straight since mid-October and will today read over 800 pages of student writing in 75 essays. And that is not even what I have to grade for finals. I know, I know, I hear you say "If you don't like it you shouldn't have chosen to be a teacher." And sadly and slowly I shake my head. Many joyous things in life have dark sides. Like Christmas--finals always comes before. But in this time of hardness it is also the season of lights. Christ was "the light that shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not." My quest is not to be the darkness. So in this rough time before the joy, the tribulation before the blessing, I give you this quote by Hugh Nibley:

" Like the angels, the prophets bring glad tiding of great joy, the assurance that our Redeemer lives and that he had come to earth and taken upon himself the task of atoning for our inadequacy. In the boundless jubilation that comes like a vast sigh of relief with that assurance, all other cares and worries shrivel to insignificance. . . We are commanded to be joyful because he has borne our sorrows. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief so that we need not be . . .

If the world is a dark and dreary place, it is because we prefer it that way, for there is nothing in the world that can keep a man from joy if joy is what he wants. Direct access to our Father in Heaven through prayer is always open. Be right there we draw back; as soon as we gain a distant glimpse of it, we are not so sure whether we want this joy. It is altogether too much for us to bear. We must learn by degrees to live with it. It is not strange that we are afraid of so great and overpowering a thing--that we are overawed by the feeling that all this is too good for us. The fact that that it is too good for us--much too good and the message of the prophets and the Church to us here is that we must awake and prepare ourselves as good and faithful servants to enter into the joy of the Lord. We are not ready yet. It was the glory of the Lord shining round about that made the shepherds sore afraid, so that the angel had to reassure them that he was bringing only joyful news, good tidings of great joy, for he had been sent to announce, as all the prophets have, the coming to earth of the Redeemer. That has been the joyful message of all the prophets. That we may come to support not the burden of great suffering, but the much greater impact of limitless joy is the purpose of our training here. "In the world ye shall have tribulation," says the Lord to his prophets, "but be of good cheer: I have overcome the world."

What the World teaches us, if we would believe the wisest men. . . is to live gracefully in the wan shadow of ever-present sorrow. To the Prophets such teaching is posturing pretence and lame surrender, for they know better; there is the far harder task of persuading men to accept and to live with, boundless and everlasting joy."

Hmmm, that puts a different spin on things doesn't it?

Joy in the Season
Joy in Christ
Joyeaux Noel.

In memorium: Attack on Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941