Pope Benedict claims that our worlds, both “first” and “third,” are in a crisis diagnosed as “the inability of Joy” and caused by another crisis, “the inability to love.” Is Pope Benedict claiming that parents no longer love their children, or children their parents? Or that friends no longer care for each other? No. He claims rather that people love with a love that is human, and not divine, and thus settle for an impoverished joy. Joy based on human love is impoverished by its dependence on the behavior of others and on circumstances beyond our control. Thus, while times of joy may be intense, they are short lived and they leave us in confusion before a life that appears “absurd and contradictory.” Pope Benedict points us to the divine love revealed in the life of Jesus and proclaimed by him in the Gospels. Jesus’ love is based on giving to others regardless of what they give in return. The reward for such love, coming from God himself, “refreshes the soul and rejoices the heart” (Ps 119:8-11 from today’s liturgy). Because this joy comes from giving, it grows day by day, minute by minute, whether circumstances prove “good” or “bad”, whether we are treated well or ill. This is the theme of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount” (Mt 5-7), which was read at daily mass during June.