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Sixth Sunday of Easter (B)

B Pascua 6                                       

EL AMOR ENGENDRA ALEGRÍA

El amor no tiene fronteras. En el Evangelio Cristo nos llama amigos; no existe en la tierra un signo mayor de confianza que este, por eso nuestra alegría llega a su plenitud. La fuente de la alegría es el amor que no hace distinción de personas, ni discrimina, ni selecciona.

Hermanas y hermanos:

1. Muchos hombres de nuestro tiempo no entienden el sentido de la verdadera alegría.  La ven como un paréntesis en medio de una existencia aburrida en donde predomina la inquietud, la inseguridad, el dolor. Por eso cada vez se oyen más risas y se ven menos sonrisas. "El necio cuando ríe lo hace a carcajadas; mas el hombre sensato apenas sonríe" -dice la Escritura-. Quien lleva a Dios en su alma, siente la necesidad imperiosa de transmitirlo con una alegría profunda, serena, permanente; es el contagio incontrolable que penetra hasta el fondo del corazón, que lo esponja y tranquiliza.

2. "Hay más alegría en dar que en recibir" La felicidad de una madre es la alegría de sus hijos; Es un teorema que no falla. Pero es mayor la alegría si tenemos a Dios en  nuestro corazón. Cuando no hay amor, no hay vida y sólo encontramos el vacío de Dios; entonces queremos llenar ese espacio con dioses falsos.

En cambio quien posee la alegría cristiana es portador de un mensaje nuevo de solidaridad, de paz, de amor; iluminado por la alegría sabe acoger la vida con agradecimiento y veneración; es la actitud de quien ha descubierto que la vida entera es gracia. Sólo es feliz quien hace un mundo más feliz. Sólo conoce la alegría quien sabe regalarla. La alegría es contagiosa.

3. "La alegría del corazón alegra el rostro". Paul Claudel pone en boca de su personaje este mensaje: "Dios mío, tú me habías dado la posibilidad de hacer que todo aquel que me mirara, tuviera deseos de cantar, como si yo le diera el tono en voz baja". Pregúntate honestamente: ¿Tu sonrisa revela a los demás la presencia de Dios en tu alma? ¿El mundo mejora cuando tú contribuyas a elevarlo? El bálsamo de una sincera alegría cristiana, podría traer de nuevo, entre los hermanos en la fe, el resurgimiento de una ejemplar caridad.

La alegría necesita imperiosamente comunicarse a través de la verdadera amistad.  Recordemos que la medida del amor es amar sin medida. El auténtico amor no sabe de estrategias ni de cálculos; por eso el amor implica  generosidad, gratuidad y alegría. El amor interesado es la antítesis del amor. "El egoísmo se parece a los bandidos egipcios que sólo abrazaban a sus víctimas para ahogarlas".

"Cantad con vuestra voz, -dice San Agustín- cantad con vuestro corazón, cantad con vuestros labios, cantad con toda vuestra vida". Hermanas y hermanos: Llevemos la alegría cristiana al ambiente en que vivimos: La familia, el trabajo, los amigos. Pero que no sea la alegría que da el mundo, sino la que Cristo nos trajo con su encarnación. Sólo así tendremos rostro de resucitados.

Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year B                       

Love Begets Happiness
 

Love has no limits. In the Gospel Christ calls us friends; on this earth there is no greater sign of confidence than this, and for this reason happiness reaches its fullness. The source of happiness is that love that does not distinguish between persons, that does not discriminate, that does not pick and choose.

Sisters and brothers:

1. Many of our contemporaries do not understand the meaning of true happiness.  They see it as a parenthesis in the middle of a boring existence in which worry, insecurity and pain are predominate. For this reason we hear more and more laughs and see less and less smiles. "A fool raises his voice in laughter, but the prudent man at the most smiles gently", says Sirach. The one who bears God in his soul, perceives the imperative need of transmitting him with deep, serene and permanent happiness; it is the uncontrolable need to pass it on which penetrates to the depths of the heart, which reassures it.

2. "There is more happiness in giving than in receiving" A mom's happiness is her children's happiness. This is an infallible theorem. But the greatest happiness comes with having God in our hearts. Where there is no love, there is no life and we only find the absence of God; it is then that we desire to fill this empty space with with false idols.

On the other hand the person who has Christian happiness is a bearer of a new message of solidarity, of peace, of love; enlightened by happiness he knows how to welcome life with thanksgiving and veneration; it is the attitude of the person who has discovered that all of life is a gift. Only the one who makes the world a happier place is truly happy. Only the person who knows how to give happiness knows happiness. Happiness is contagious.

3. "The happiness of the heart and of the face". Paul Claudel places this message in the mouth of one of his characters: "My God, you have given me the possibility of having it that anyone who looks at me, would desire to sing, as if I had intoned for him in a low voice". Ask yourself honestly: does your smile reveal God's presence in your soul to others? Does the world get better when you do something to lift it up? The balm of sincere Christian happiness could once again bring, among our brothers and sisters in the faith, the resurgence of exemplary charity.

Happiness imperatively needs to communicate itself through authentic friendship.  Let us remember that the measure of love is love without measure. Authentic love knows neither strategies nor reckonings; for this reason love implies generosity, gratitude and happiness. Self-interested love is the antithesis of love. "Egoism is like unto those Egyptian bandits who only embrace their victims in order to strangle them."

"Sing out with your voice", says Saint Augustine, "sing with your heart; sing with your lips; sing with your whole life." Sisters and brothers: Let us bring Christian happiness wherever we go: to our family, to our workplace, to our friends. Let it not be the happiness that the world gives, but that which Christ brought by his Incarnation. Only thus will we have the face of those who have risen.

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