We All Should Be Living As 'people Of Joy'
Pope Francis wants Catholics to become aware of how important it is for us to be joyful. Thus, the entire introduction to “The Gospel of Joy” – 18 paragraphs – recalls persons among God’s People who were people of joy. The Holy Father claims it was precisely their deep relationship with God that filled their lives with profound joy.
He mentions the Prophet Zephaniah: when God comes among us, God will “rejoice over us with gladness…. God will exult over us with loud singing, as on a day of festival” (Zephaniah 3:17). Another translation proclaims that God will “dance before us as on a day of festival!” When was the last time we thought about the joy God has in us for being faithful servants?
The Pope mentions how the Angel Gabriel’s greeting to Mary was “Rejoice!” (Luke 1:28) and how John leapt with joy in Elizabeth’s womb when Mary visited her (Luke 1:41). We are all familiar with Mary’s praise of God called the Magnificat – “My soul rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 1:47). Jesus explained the purpose of his teaching was “that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete” (Luke 10:21). Remember the disciples’ exceeding joy upon seeing the risen Christ (John 20:20). In the Acts of the Apostles, wherever the disciples went “there was great joy” (Acts 8:8). Can that also be said of us? And when they were being persecuted, “they were filled with joy” (Acts 13:52), often going to their deaths singing hymns to God.
How can Christians be so joyful when facing difficulties, struggles, trials, even the violence we hear about in today’s world? We don’t deny that evil exists. We do all in our power to rid our lives, surroundings and world of evil any way we can. The greatest source of our joy as Christians is our belief that – in the risen Christ – evil does not have the final word in our personal lives or the world’s unfolding history. Ultimately, evil will be defeated by the Risen One who has displayed his power on the cross and in the tomb.
Some parishioners invited me over to dinner shortly after Easter one year. During our table conversation, their teenage daughter commented, “Father Jim, if Catholics really relieved that Jesus rose from the dead and we know the final outcome of our lives will be life with God in heaven, why aren’t they happier?” After re-connecting my jawbone (!), my response was that she hit on one of the major reasons why the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche claimed he could never believe in the resurrection of Jesus – because Christians never seem to portray the joy that such an event should naturally produce.
Pope Francis writes something similar to what the teenager asked: “There are Christians whose lives seem like Lent without Easter.” I realize of course that joy is not expressed the same way at all times in life, especially at moments of great difficulty. Joy adapts and changes, but it always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved. I understand the grief of people who have to endure great suffering, yet slowly but surely we all have to let the joy of faith slowly revive as a quiet yet firm trust, even amid the greatest distress: ‘My soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is… But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: the Lord’s steadfast love never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning…” (Lamentations 3:17, 21-23, 26).
