AN HOC SIT "GAUDIUM PLENUM", QUOD PROMITTIT DOMINUS.
The Promise of Full Joy
The soul asks God if the promised joy is truly the full joy Christ invites us to request.
My God and my Lord, my hope and my heart's joy, tell my soul: is this the joy you proclaim to us through your Son? Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be full.✦
Entering Into Joy
The fullness of joy is found not merely in receiving joy, but in the whole person entering entirely into joy itself.
I've found a joy that is full — fuller than full, in fact. With a full heart, a full mind, a full soul — the whole person filled with that joy — yet even now joy will overflow beyond all measure.1 So that whole joy won't just enter into those who rejoice — rather, those who rejoice, whole and entire, will enter into joy.2
The Unfathomable Depths of Love and Knowledge
The degree of the saints' joy is revealed to be unfathomable in this life, as it corresponds to their unimaginable knowledge and love of God.
Tell me, Lord, tell your servant deep in my heart: if this is the joy your servants will enter into — those who will enter into the joy of their Lord.✦ But surely that joy in which your chosen ones will rejoice — "neither has eye seen, nor ear heard, nor has it risen into the heart of man."✦ So then, Lord, I haven't yet said or even thought how greatly those blessed ones of yours will rejoice. Surely, they will rejoice as much as they love; they will love as much as they know. How much will they know you, Lord, then — and how much will they love you? Surely "neither has eye seen, nor ear heard, nor has it risen into the heart of man" in this life — how much they will know you and love you in that life.✦
Growing in Hope Toward Fullness
The soul prays for progressive growth in the knowledge and love of God in this life, trusting Christ's promise to grant complete joy in the next.
I pray, God: let me know you, and let me love you, so that I may rejoice in you. And if I can't reach that fullness in this life, then let me advance day by day until that fullness comes. Let the knowledge of you grow here in me, and there become complete; let your love increase, and there reach its fullness: so that here my joy may be great in hope, and there be complete in reality. Lord, through your Son you command—no, you counsel—us to ask, and you promise to grant it: "that our joy may be complete."
Amen: Longing for the Joy of the Lord
The chapter concludes with an urgent plea to receive this full joy and a wholehearted commitment to meditate on and desire God until entering into the Lord's joy forever.
Lord, I ask for what you counsel through our wonderful counselor; I want to receive what you promise through your truth, so that my joy may be full. God of truth, I ask to receive it, so that my joy may be full. Meanwhile, let my mind meditate on this, let my tongue speak from there. Let my heart love that, let my mouth discourse on it. Let my soul hunger for this, let my flesh thirst for it, let my whole being desire it, until I enter into the joy of my Lord, who is the triune and one God, blessed forever. Amen.
Read the original Latin
Deus meus et dominus meus, spes mea et gaudium cordis mei, dic animae meae, si hoc est gaudium de quo nobis dicis per filium tuum:
Petite et accipietis, ut gaudium vestrum sit plenum.
Inveni namque gaudium quoddam plenum, et plus quam plenum. Pleno quippe corde, plena mente, plena anima, pleno toto homine gaudio illo: adhuc supra modum supererit gaudium. Non ergo totum illud gaudium intrabit in gaudentes sed toti gaudentes intrabunt in gaudium.
Dic, domine, dic servo tuo intus in corde quo, si hoc est gaudium, in quod intrabunt servi tui, qui intrabunt "in gaudium domini" sui. Sed gaudium illud certe quo gaudebunt electi tui, "nec oculus vidit, nec auris audivit, nec in cor hominis ascendit". Nondum ergo dixi aut cogitavi, domine, quantum gaudebunt illi beati tui. Utique tantum gaudebunt, quantum amabunt; tantum amabunt, quantum cognoscent. Quantum te cognoscent, domine, tunc, et quantum te amabunt? Certe "nec oculus vidit, nec auris audivit, nec in cor hominis ascendit" in hac vita, quantum te cognoscent et amabunt in illa vita.
Oro, deus, cognoscam te, amem te, ut gaudeam de te. Et si non possum in hac vita ad plenum, vel proficiam in dies usque dum veniat illud ad plenum. Proficiat hic in me notitia tui, et ibi fiat plena; crescat amor tuus, et ibi sit plenus: ut hic gaudium meum sit in spe magnum, et ibi sit in re plenum. Domine, per filium tuum iubes immo consulis petere et promittis accipere, "ut gaudium" nostrum "plenum sit".
Peto, domine, quod consulis per admirabilem consiliarium nostrum; accipiam quod promittis per veritatem tuam, "ut gaudium" meum "plenum sit". Deus verax, peto accipiam, "ut gaudium" meum "plenum sit". Meditetur interim inde mens mea, loquatur inde lingua mea. Amet illud cor meum, sermocinetur os meum. Esuriat illud anima mea, sitiat caro mea, desideret tota substantia mea, donec intrem "in gaudium domini" mei, "qui est" trinus et unus deus "benedictus in saecula. Amen".
Scripture echoes
- ↩John.16.24 — Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, so that your joy may be full.
- ↩Matt.25.21 — His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.'
- ↩1Cor.2.9 — But as it is written: What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived—all that God has prepared for those who love him.
- ↩1Cor.2.9 — But as it is written: What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived—all that God has prepared for those who love him.
Notes
- 1 ↩The ablative-of-attendant-circumstance series (pleno corde, plena mente, plena anima, pleno toto homine) is rendered as parallel 'with a full X' phrases to preserve the rhetorical accumulation. The final ablative absolute gaudio illo is folded into the series as 'filled with that joy' to keep the flow natural.
- 2 ↩The chiastic structure (totum gaudium intrabit in gaudentes / toti gaudentes intrabunt in gaudium) is rendered to preserve the reversal: joy entering the joyful vs. the joyful entering joy. The adversative sed is rendered as 'rather' to keep the contrast natural and forceful.
Proslogion (Address / Discourse on the Existence of God) companion
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