ON JOY AND SORROW

 

Acquainted with Grief by Jenedy Paige

“He wept – He who had descended below all things, the Man of Sorrows, He who bore all our griefs. The heights of His infinite capacity for joy is the inverse, mirror image of the depth of His capacity to bear our burdens.

“So it is with the enlarged caverns of feeling within our own hearts; as the sorrows of our lives carve and stretch those caverns, they expand our soul’s capacity for joy. Then, when the Man of Sorrows turns our bitter tastes to sweet, our joy – and His – will fill the widened chambers of our hearts with what the scriptures call ‘fulness’. That is when we have accepted His Atonement and love with such completeness that His purpose for us is fully satisfied.

“Then will we know that we were made for this. Then will we know where, and why, and to whom, we belong. “For He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with gladness (Psalm 107:9).

-          Bruce C. Hafen, “The Belonging Heart”, p 315) 

KAHLIL GIBRAN ON JOY AND SORROW:

Then a woman said, Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow.

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.

And how else can it be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven? And is not the lute that soothes your spirit the very wood that was hollowed with knives?

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.

When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Some of you say, “Joy is greater than sorrow”, and others say, “Nay, sorrow is greater.” But I say to you, they are inseparable. Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

Verily, you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy. Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.

When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise to fall.

-          Kahlil Gibran, “The Prophet – A Timeless Masterpiece”