9 Philosophers teach that joy is an effect of love. That is, we experience joy when in the presence of someone or something we love. Human life provides no shortage of examples: the company and conversation of a good friend, the satisfaction obtained from a delicious meal, even the mind’s delight in reading a good book (such as, if I may be so bold, the one you now hold in your hands). In short, joy flows naturally and spontaneously from being united—sometimes at long last—with a good we have sought after. It is also possible, as Saint Thomas Aquinas explains, for us to be happy and full of joy simply because a friend has what he or she loves. Aquinas calls this the love of benevolence, “whereby a man rejoices in the well-being of his friend, though he be absent.” Mothers and fathers, for example, are happy when their children are happy, even when the embrace of a Christian vocation to marriage or the consecrated life entails that they leave the nest. In this life, we experience God as in some way “absent”—that is, we do not see or feel his presence as we do the things of earth, and we can even tragically rebel against him. It is, however, a joyful act for the Catholic to contemplate God. Pondering the infinite goodness and perfection that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
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