It must be confessed. I am indeed an Anglophile. It is true; give me my tea, Kipling, and Radiohead; send me to Cambridge and let me be doused in the delightful harmony of the Kingdom’s accent. On a side note before we proceed, I quote The Onion: “I’ve admired the British ever since I saw them on PBS as a kid,” sighs the fictional Prousalis with a slight blush…

Anyway I suppose the real purpose of this post isn’t really happening so far, so I must yank my heart away from the Queen and return to whatever it is that has meaning.

I just finished reading Descent Into Hell by the Inklings member and Lewis contemporary, Charles Williams. Williams excels in writing gripping and lucid metaphysical fiction, which is incredible in the way that it brings to the fore profound glimpses of Spiritual reality. The man’s writing is full of high-brow rhetoric which is delightful in a poetic way (rather than merely stiffling in a Hegelian or Heideggerian way, which I suppose is due to the fact that he’s British, not German). While the book is full of insights, for this time I draw attention to one concept; indeed, to one line.

“all acts of love are the measure of capacity for joy; its measure and its preparation, whether the joy comes or delays” (171).

The thought here is that Love and Joy are inextricably intertwined. Every true and pure act of love springs from a core repository of joy. Love is impossible with out delight, without joy. This is an incredible thought and I can’t help but think of the Psalms and how many times we hear that the Lord delights in His people. “Rejoice always.” “Sorrow may last for the night, but Joy comes in the morning.”

Think of the things and people you love. For the most part, you will find that they are the very things that give you joy, yet to stop here is to miss the fundamental power of having love spring from joy. For material things and mortal people are not eternally infallible; the joy that people and things bring is merely temporal and will not satisfy in an epic manner. Yet, joy in itself is so powerful, that it matters not from whence it springs–if the capacity for joy is great enough it will spill over into a pervasive love that radiates in all directions to all people in its beautiful abundance.

The greatest commandment is this: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind…the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt 22:37-39). But before this is even possible, I think one would do well to follow Paul’s admonition: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Phil 4:4) If one is drenched and saturated in the delight that comes from knowing the Lord, his or her heart will be filled to overflowing with an avalanche of love for God and for the neighbor–indeed, for all living things.

I suppose the final thought is this. While love is “a measure of capacity for joy,” love itself inspires even more joy. And so the atom remains intact. Love and Joy–the Divine phenomenon of desire, delight, and eternal satisfaction.