THE LIGHT IS ON - 2014 – SESSION 1 – THE CHRISTIAN MEANING OF JOY

        It may seem paradoxical to conduct a Lenten series of talks on the subject of joy.  After all, we think of Lent as a more somber time, of repentance, self-sacrifice, and in general joining with Jesus Christ, who suffered for our sake.  We tend to think of joy as more associated with Christmas, Easter and the like.  However, joy is a rightful aspect of Lent, as it is with all of the Christian life, for as St. Paul say, “Rejoice in the Lord always.  I say it again rejoice.”  Phil. 4:4. Along those lines, the first option for the Preface to the Eucharistic Prayers during Lent refers to awaiting Easter “with the joy of minds made pure.”  The Preface of the First Eucharistic Prayer for Reconciliation, which was authorized especially for Lent and other penitential occasions ends with the words “proclaiming our joy at the salvation that comes from Your, we join in the heavenly hymn of countless hosts.”  Similarly, the reflection on the internet site catholic.net is entitled “The Joy of Lent.”  If we understand Christian joy rightfully, we can see it as the background to all of the Christian life.

        For Christian joy is not simply an emotion or reaction to particular events, as happiness and sorrow are.  Happiness and sorrow, and for that matter satisfaction or discontent, interest and boredom emotions or states of mind; and while we would rather be happy than sad, satisfied than discontent, and the like, different emotions are rightful at different times.  It would, after all, be very strange and unfitting to be happy at unemployment, illness or death; and certainly we should be sorrowful, not happy, about sin.  And, likewise, the cheerful celebration of good times and repenting from sins are in many ways opposing perspectives upon our lives; and each is fitting for different times on this earthly pilgrimage.  But Christian joy no mere emotion or one way of looking at life.  It is at the core of the Christian life.  Joy is, as St. Thomas Aquinas says, the overflowing of Christian love.  See Summa Theologica II-II question 28 article 1.  And, as he goes on to say, because joy comes from love it is not at all inconsistent with sorrow at all things that are contrary to the beloved, most especially sin but also anything contrary to the good of the beloved.  See Summa question 28 article 2.  For, if a person loves another, he is open to all things good or bad that happen to others; and if we love God, we will rejoice at all that is good, but also repent at all that is evil.  The different emotions in life are like the different types of weather, all good in their own time.  Christian joy is like the sun, which always warms the earth, although it is not always as clearly seen.

Because true Christian joy comes from love, the highest of the virtues, the Bible using such terms as “joy,” “joyful,” and “rejoice” over 500 times.  While it is true that a few of those references are negative, such as the prophet Zephaniah’s condemnation of cities that rejoice in their own power, see Zeph 2:15, see also Is. 31:13; Ez. 36:5, the overwhelming majority of references to joy in the Bible are positive, and in particular tend to be associated with celebrating the presence of the Almighty God and His saving power.  In this talk, I will describe four aspects of Christian joy, as found in the Bible and Christian writing.  These four aspects are: (1) joy at the sense of the divine with us; (2) joy in experience the adventure of our pilgrimage toward heaven; (3) joy at being freed from sins; and (4) the joy of sharing the Gospel with the world.  In each case, there is a natural prelude to Christian joy that even people outside of the faith can experience, a prelude that points the way to the faith and the joy that is here and now a first promise of the greater kingdom.

        I.  Joy as a Sense of the Divine

        The first level of joy is that sense of the divine, the sense that God is with us, what the greater Lutheran theologian of the early twentieth century Rudoph Otto called “the idea of the holy” in a book by the same name, the sense that as he described is at the core of the universal experience of faith.  In his autobiographical book Surprised By Joy, C.S. Lewis describes this sense of joy as God’s message to him that led him on, even long before he believed in Christ or even in any religion.   In that book, he describes experiences of his early life, such as sensing the very idea of Autumn in the Beatrix Potter story Squirrel Nutkin, or a glimpse of Eden in a toy garden that was in his childhood home.  These experiences gave him a mysterious sense of joy, a sense that left him longing for something greater, something he did not know, which he eventually discovered was someone, the Man and God Jesus Christ.  As he wrote, this joy gave him “an unsatisfied desire which was itself more desirable than any satisfaction.”   It was a first sense of the divine before he even knew God in any other way.

And likewise in the Bible, we see the prophets, psalmists and finally early Christians wrote of a great joy at a sense of God with us.  Thus, for example, when Moses described the great Jewish feasts of Passover, the Weeks, and the Tabernacles, he called for the people to rejoice and celebrate God’s presence with us.  See Duet. 16:10-11, 15.  Likewise, Zechariah recounts God’s message: “sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for lo I come and dwell in your midst. .  . . And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord.”   The Psalms include almost 100 references to joy, many of them in the context of sensing God’s presence in all of creation.    Thus, for example, the 19th Psalm rejoices in sensing how nature glorifies God, “The heavens declare the glory of God.  They sky proclaims its builder’s craft.”  And it then turns to how we gain delight by understanding how God orders all things, “The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.”  The Psalms, and especially the last six over and again call for all people to delight in God.  Thus, for example, the 149th Psalm begins, “Praise the Lord.  Sing to the Lord a new song, His praise in the assembly of the faithful.  Let Israel be glad in her Maker, the sons of Zion rejoice in their king.”  Luke also describes this joy of being in God’s presence, as for example, when even the unborn John the Baptist leaps in the womb at the presence of Mary and Jesus.  And then Mary responds to Elizabeth’s greeting with her famous Magnificat, which begins, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.  My spirit rejoices in God my savior.”  Luke 1:44-46.  And likewise, the angels speak to the shepherd of the “good news of great joy that they bring.”  Luke 2:10.  At the Last Supper discourse of Jesus as described by John, Jesus speaks nine times of Christian joy, saying such things as “I have told you these things that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.”  John 15:11.  Thus, as Bishop Loverde says in his pastoral letter Go Forth with Hearts on Fire, “Joy does not mean getting what we want, or never experiencing difficulties or pain and suffering.  Perfect joy is union with God.”  And so Pope Francis begins his apostolic exhortation The Joy of the Gospel with its theme, “The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. . . . With Christ joy is constantly born anew.”

And this union with God is available, not only in times of intense prayer, but rather in all of life, even the seemingly ordinary times, such as together, mutual efforts, good learning, art, music and literature.  For anything good on earth can be for us a sign of God’s providence.  Thus, the Book of Sirach calls for us to rejoice at even simple things, “Deprive not yourself of the day’s enjoyment.”  Sir 14:14.  Even the book of Ecclesiastes, despite its questioning of the purpose of life, gives such advice as, “There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and find enjoyment in his work.  This also, I saw is from the hand of God; for apart from Him who can eat and who can have enjoyment.  For to the man who pleases Him God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy.”  Eccl. 2:24-26.  The idea is that innocent goodness of this earth brings us joy when we see such things as a greater sign of God’s love, as for example, a gift or even a poem becomes more enjoyable when seen as a sign of the giver or the poet’s love.  Such joy involves happiness, but it is not mere contentment, much less mere pleasure, as the world would offer it.  For it points the way to a greater realm, a realm to which God calls us.  And that is why, C.S. Lewis calls joy an “unfulfilled desire that it itself more attractive than any other satisfaction”

II.  Joy at the Adventure of Faith

        And this sense of longing leads us to the second way of seeing joy, that is the joy of adventure, the joy of seeking something greater, the joy of the pilgrimage into the greatness of God.  In C.K. Chesteron’s Ballad of the White Horse, which is about Alfred the Great’s defense of England against the invading Vikings, there is a passage early on in which Alfred receives a vision of Mary; and he asks her whether their defense will be successful and the English people will be able to return to their homes in peace.  She does not answer the question, for as she says, the faithful are not given promises of sure fates and fame.  In fact she warns that the sky is blackening and the sea rising.  But she does promise him that God is with him, and that, in his prayers, he can open the gates of heaven.  The Mary concludes with the question, “Do you have the joy without a cause, yea, faith without a hope.”  Alfred then goes forth, as Chesterton says, “shaken of the joy of giants, the joy without a cause,” or more accurately, the joy with no worldly cause.  

        When we understand  that this life is a journey, a pilgrimage to a greater kingdom, we have an great experience of divine joy in the background.  One thinks of the childlike delight at setting forth on such a quest; we are meant to have this joy at this, the greatest quest.  Thus does Jesus say that we must become like children in order to enter the kingdom of heaven.   See Matt 18:104.  In describing an earthly pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the Psalmist says, “I rejoiced when I heard them say, let us go to the house of the Lord.”  See Ps. 121:1.  We sense the joy of the Apostles and early Christians as they went forth into the world with the Gospel, not knowing where it would lead them, but knowing that they were journeying with the Almighty God.  

        We see here why it is that the Christian can rejoice even at suffering, for as he joins with Christ in His suffering, he throws off the weights of this earth, and journeys more swiftly toward heaven.  We must leave many things behind in order to progress, but there is an excitement at doing so, as for example, for many people, even camping out (and thus leaving behind the comforts of home) brings a certain joy at liberation from lesser pleasures to set forth on the adventures of life.  And so it the Scriptures speak of rejoicing even at suffering, for it brings us us with Christ.  For example, Acts of the Apostles speaks of Saints Peter and John as “rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer for the sake of the name” of Jesus.  See Acts 5:41.  And near the beginning of his letter, St. James tells the faithful, “Count it pure joy, brethren, when you meet various trials, for your testing produces steadfastness.  And let steadfastness have its full effect so that you may become perfect.”  James 1:2.  And likewise, the First Letter of Peter goes on to say, “Rejoice when you share Christ’s sufferings, and you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed.”  1 Peter 4:13.  And likewise, Christ speaks of the great joy of a merchant when he sells all that he has in order to purchase the pearl of great price.  See Matt. 13:20, 44.  We thus are called, as the letter to the Hebrews says, to keep our eyes “on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”  For the liberation of rising about earthly pleasures to access the greater kingdom, to travel further along that great path of glory, makes the penances of Lent and of the Christian life a preparation for the joy of the never-ending Easter joy of our final homeland.

III.  Joy at Being Freed From Sin

        Of course, we know that we are often held back from this advancement by sins and attachment to sins, and we need liberation from them.  And Christ’s offer of liberation from sin leads us to the third way of seeing Christian joy, sensing that freedom, that cleansing from sin.  As Pope Francis says in The Joy of the Gospel, “How good it feels to come back to Him whenever we are lost.  . . . .With a tenderness which never disappoints, but is always capable of restoring our joy, He makes it possible for us to lift up our heads and to start anew.”  In fact, when we look at the Biblical references to joy, they come most often in the context of God’s saving power, from sin, and from the consequences of sin.  Thus, for example, in the book of the prophet Isaiah, there are about 55 references to joy, many near the beginning when he speaks of the Messiah to come and 12 of them in the last two chapters, when he speaks of the glorious kingdom of God that will come after all the trials and tribulations have gone and God has forgiven His people.  Thus, for example, in chapter 9, there is the famous prophesy, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of gloom on them a light has shone.  You have multiplied the nation; You have increased their joy; they rejoice before thee, as with the joy at the harvest”.  And near the end, in describing the new Israel, Isiah describes the Lord bringing back His people from their sins and suffering and declaring, “For behold, I create a new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.  But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create a rejoicing Jerusalem, and her people a joy.  I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and be glad in My people.”  Is 65:17-19.  Likewise, as Pope Francis points out, the short book of the prophet Zephaniah ends with a great call to rejoice in God’s saving power.  After the first two chapters describe God’s judgment and the consequences of sin, the third and final chapter then describes how God will bring His people through and how this restored nation will rejoice in Him.  “Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; should, O Israel.  Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O Daughter of Jerusalem.  The Lord has taken away the judgments against you, he has cast our your enemies.  The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst.”  Zeph. 3:14-15.

        This rejoicing promised to Israel after her time of exile is a first image of the rejoicing we should have at being freed from the burden of sin, at returning to God.  The New Testament relates the joy at early Christians at being freed from their sins and beginning a new life in Christ.  Thus, for example, the Ethiopian official whom Philip baptized and the jailer whom St. Paul baptized went forth with great joy at their new liberation, even though it was going to set them on a path that would likely lead to suffering in the world.  See Acts 8:39, 16:34.   And that is why the first Preface for Lent and for the Eucharistic Prayer for Reconciliation speak of that joy of being purified of sins.  And Jesus speaks of the celebration that the Father holds when His prodigal son returns.  See Luke 15:22-24.  We are meant to have sorrow for our sins; and in fact the word contrition comes from the Latin cum tristitia, or “with sorrow.”  But there should also be a joy at the forgiveness that God gives us.  And thus it is also that the repentance or the Lenten season, the sorrow at sins, is likewise, a preparation for a deepening of Christian joy.  For, as Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are those who weep and mourn, for they will be comforted.”  Matt 5:4

IV.  Joy in Sharing the Gospel

        But this joy cannot be kept to oneself.  As Pope Francis points out, “Goodness always tends to spread.  Every authentic experience of truth and goodness seeks by its very nature to grow within us, and any person who has experienced a profound liberation becomes more sensitive to the needs of others.”  The Joy of the Gospel 9.   Even on a natural level, there is a rightful joy at generosity with others, at being able to share our goodness with them.  Thus, as St. Paul says, “God loves a cheerful giver.”  2 Cor. 9:7.  This rightful joy at generosity takes on a greater meaning when we realize that, in serving the least of humanity, we encounter Christ Himself.  There is a great thrill, a great excitement at the fact that, as C.S. Lewis says in his great essay The Weight of Glory, “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day become a creature which, if you saw him now, you would be strongly tempted to worship.  . . . . This does not mean we are perpetually solemn.  We must play.  But our merriment must be of that kind (in fact it is the merriest kind) of people who have, form the outset, taken each other seriously.  Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object present to your senses”  

        As there should be joy in generosity always, there is likewise a great joy at sharing a treasure that increase with the sharing, the glory of the Gospel with others.  As Bishop Loverde writes in his pastoral letter, “I promise you that bringing the good news to another is a joy that far surpasses fleeting earthly pleasures.  . . . We want others to taste the joy and strength that come from union with Jesus  within His Church.”  Thus, the Apostles took great joy at the fact that others were coming into the faith.  St. Paul, for example, repeatedly speaks of this joy.  For example, in the letter to the Colossians, he even sees his suffering as a way in which the grace of Christ is brought to people, saying, “I rejoice in my sufferings, for in my own body I make up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of His body the Church.”  Col 1:24.  And in the letter to the Philippians, St. Paul refers to joy 12 times, declaring at one point, “Christ is proclaimed.  In that I rejoice.  Yes, and I shall rejoice.  . . . For I know that, even if I am poured out as a libation upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.  Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me.”  Phil. 1:18-19, 2:17-18. Likewise, the first letter of St. John says near the beginning that he is writing so that they may share his faith and “my joy may be complete.”  1 John 1:4.  Jesus speaks of this joy at bringing the good news to others in the parables of the lost coin and lost sheep, when He concludes by describing the joy of the angels and of heaven as the return of every repentance sinner.  See Luke 15:7, 10.

        We are meant to join in that angelic and heavenly joy even on earth.  And thus, as we are near the beginning of the Lenten season, we set aside time in prayer that we may have the contact with the divine that brings us the first taste of this joy.  Our fasting and other self-sacrifice opens our hearts and minds to this sense of the divine and gives us strength and self-control for this joyous struggle, for this journey to the greater kingdom.  Even our repentance is filled with the joy that God promised as He triumphs over our final enemy, sin, and brings us closer to our great and final homeland.  And, when we set aside time for God in prayer, space for God in sacrifice, humility before God in repentance, we become more and more able to show forth that light of Christ, that joy of the Gospel to others.  The next talk will discuss this call to share the joy of the Gospel with our neighbors, to fulfill our calling as prophetic witnesses of God before the world.