THE LIGHT IS ON – SESSION 3 – 2014
THE CHALLENGES TO CHRISTIAN JOY IN THE MODERN ERA
During the last two talks, we have been discussing the idea of Christian joy and the joyful sharing of the Gospel. Tonight, I would like to address another issue that both Pope Francis and Bishop Loverde address in their works The Joy of the Gospel and Go Forth With Hearts on Fire, that is, barriers to living out and sharing Christian joy in the modern world. In particular, Pope Francis speaks of challenges to joy in the modern world. He lists among other things overall areas: (1) the willingness to write off people; (2) the idolatry of money and valuing all things in terms of material progress; (3) a culture that puts up barriers to the authentic living out of the faith; (4) a pessimism or contentment within ecclesial communities. In this talk, I will address each of these issues in turn, and the advice of Pope Francis and Bishop Loverde on how to overcome them.
I. The Throw Away Culture
The first barrier the Pope Francis speaks of a society that is willing to ignore people who are on the margins. As he notes, there has unfortunately always been exploitation and oppression in the political, economic and social realms. But he says that, in the modern world, there can be a tendency of excluding and marginalizing people who are perceived as a nuisance, the development of what he calls a “throw away culture” in which people can easily be discarded as unwanted products. Evangelii Gaudium 53.
Now certainly in modern America, we hold in principle that all people have rights and dignity that society should defend. However, it can be easy to use the technology and social structures of society to ignore other people in need, to deal with people only over a computer or in passing. There is a great anonymity growing in which, as Pope Francis points out, an elderly person can die of exposure, and it is not news, for people in society are busy with their own concerns. See Evangelii Gaudium 53. It is easier than ever to use E-mail, automation and the like to avoid much contact with anyone whom one does not want to deal with, and even to avoid having much personal contact at all, instead letting anonymous machines do everything, for that fact is so much more comfortable, with fewer interruptions to easy contentment. There can be a tendency to let care for the elderly, the poor, the handicapped, be a job for professionals alone, perhaps paid for by donations and taxes, but not calling for any personal contact.
In such a society, things become much more convenient and easy to obtain. But, precisely because of this ease, there is a dullness that people try to fill by one distraction after another. There is not the surprising joy of seeing Christ in those in need, the adventure of seeing God’s glory shining forth in many unexpected ways as we meet and care about new people. As Pope Francis says, “Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain, and feeling the need to help them, as though all this were someone else’s responsibility.” Evangelii Gaudium 54. He calls for reaching out to people across social and class boundaries, being willing to be with those who are less fortunate, and thus overcoming the class antagonism that is often characteristic of modern times. Likewise, Bishop Loverde calls for the excitement of witnessing to the faith by good deeds for others. We should have the courage to make the world ask today, as the classical world asked of old, “Why do these Christians love the less fortunate so much, not just as a matter of obligation, but as a matter of joy.” He calls for finding ways to volunteer with charitable works. See Go Forth With Hearts on Fire 27. Such works give us the joy of using our creative energy and talents well and being able to encounter the divine, for as Jesus said, at the end of all things he will say to all people and all nations, “Whatever you did for the least of my brethren, that you did unto Me.” Matt 25:40.
II. The Idolatry of Money and Addiction to Cheap Satisfaction
But the problem is not just the exclusion of the poor and the marginalized, although this marginalization is a grave concern. There is an increasing anonymity across society, an anonymity that the wealth and technology of the modern world allows and in some way encourages when it focuses on material desires more than the deepest needs of mankind, the need for the good, the true, the beautiful, the holy, the need for love. As Pope Francis he says, “The worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and dictatorship of an impersonal economy. . . . Man is reduced to one of his needs alone: consumption.” Evangelii Gaudium 55. In itself, it is good to have an economy productive enough to provide for all of people’s needs and have more for a cultured and vibrant life. But, in the modern era, the goal of becoming more comfortable, more able to have pleasure and entertainment, the availability of larger houses, bigger cars, wider television sets and the like, in many ways has become the goal of society.
There is certainly the call for a distribution of goods such that no one is in poverty, a call that Pope Francis emphasizes over and again. But he also describes a calling that affects all people rich, poor or middle class; and that is an insistence on a personal economy in which people care about those with whom they deal, whether employees or employers, buyers of sellers, fellow customers or service personnel, all people in the marketplace of the world. And he is calling for a sense that true progress should be measured, not by material consumption, but by the ability of all people to increase in love and in all of the virtues. Because such love, such virtue, such richness in relationships with God and our fellow man are difficult to measure or quantify, people do not see progress (or regress) in these terms. After all, how do we usually define a “developed” country, or how do we usually refer to the progress of peoples? It almost always means having more technology or wealth; development or regression in such things as family, faith, community commitments and the like are generally ignored. In fact, as Pope Benedict pointed out in his last encyclical Caritas in Veritate, in many wealthy nations there is a “super-development of a wasteful and consumerist kind” that causes a “moral underdevelopment” and a “practical atheism” that “deprives its citizens of the moral and spiritual strength that is indispensable for attaining integral human development.” See Caritas in Veritate (2009) 23, 29. Thus, for example, Robert Putnam’s 2000 book Bowling Alone tracks how it is that people tend to favor individual entertainment rather than dealing with others, exemplified by the fact that, as he notes, bowling is more popular than ever, but bowling leagues are steadily declining. It is an example of a society that increasingly emphasizes pleasure and convenience over the challenging joy of dealing with each other as potential saints.
In such a society, there must be an added effort to know and care about the other employees, customers, the people both in the marketplace and in all of society. And overall, there must be a special effort to reach out to others and form the human relationships that are the basis for all true joy, to be distinguished from mere satisfaction. As Pope Francis says, “Pastoral activity needs to bring out more clearly that fact that one’s relationship with the Father demands and encourages a communion which heals, promotes and reinforces bonds.” The Joy of the Gospel 67. Bishop Loverde likewise describes “transience and anonymity” as one of the great challenges to evangelization in the modern world. And so he encourages hospitality and more groups in parishes that bring people together and homes that are filled with the charity of the Gospel and open to others sharing Christian joy. Go Forth With Hearts on Fire 48-50. In this way, we ourselves see the goodness of God in others and become that salt of the earth, that light of heaven that Jesus calls us to be.
III. Cultural Barriers to Truth and True Joy
We must also recognize that, in the modern world, there are many cultural barriers that discourage evangelization, or an pursuit of the divine truth that sets us free. There have always been barriers to developing the faith, but there are unique challenges to the faith in the modern world, challenges that Pope Francis and Bishop Loverde address in their writings. Pope Francis certainly speaks of the age old problem of religious persecution, political barriers or even violence to the spread of the faith. But he also addresses what is more common in the West, a discrimination or spurning of those who wish to share and live out their faith. Thus, in America, no one will be arrested for promoting the Christian faith, but there is often a social stigma to discussing matters of faith. What G.K. Chesterton pointed out a century ago in the beginning of his book Heretics is even more true today. In older ages, people of one faith would try to suppress promotion of another faith; and they usually failed in their object. But in the modern world, it seems like a sense of manners of social norms is succeeding where all the persecutions failed, but here to prevent anyone from talking about any faith. As he wrote, “The old restriction meant that only the orthodox were allowed to discuss religion. Modern liberty means that nobody is allowed to discuss it. Good taste, the last and vilest of human superstitions has succeed in silencing us where all the rest have failed.” Heretics (1905) ch. 1.
One reason for this reluctance to discuss the deepest truths is the superficiality of modern thought. As Pope Francis says, in modern western culture “priority is given to the outward, the immediate, the visible, the quick, the superficial and the provisional.” He goes on to say, “We are living in an information-driven society which bombards us indiscriminately with date – all treated as being of equal importance – and which leads to a remarkable superficiality in the area of moral discernment.” Evangelii Gaudium 64. Or, as Bishop Loverde writes, “The ‘anti-evangelization campaign is in full swing. One marketing campaign after another tempts us to pursue material things and physical appearances that distract us from our relationship with God.” Go Forth With Hearts on Fire 43. Really caring and understanding matters of the faith, or for that matter, any principles of the true, the good, the beautiful or the holy requires effort, and calls us to a better life. Such pursuits draw upon and increase desires that nothing on earth can finally attain. People often prefer what is more easily attainable and pleasure-giving to the infinite goodness and glory of the divine. As C.S. Lewis points out in his autobiographical book Surprised by Joy, “I doubt that anyone who has tasted [joy] would ever, if both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasures of the world. But then Joy is never in our power and pleasure often is.” Surprised by Joy (1955) ch. 1. For to have true joy, the joy that comes from God means letting go, letting Him be in charge, being open to the infinite, to the call of heaven, a call that demands everything, as with the merchants in the parables who sold all that they had to buy the pearl of great price and the treasure of the field. See Matt. 13:44-46. It is so much easier to settle for the superficial pleasures, including perhaps pleasures that go by the term “spiritual,” but are really simply comfortable, easy ways of placating the deeper call. Thus, we see in modern America bookshelves in stores filled with books on spirituality. But theology that is truly challenging, intellectually and morally, is much more difficult for people to accept.
In this context, Pope Francis calls for us to engage the culture and show how Christianity, far from diminishing human freedom enhances it to allow each person to engage in the creative goodness of God. He encourages making the faith attractive by presenting it in the culture where we live. See Evangelii Gaudium 68-69. Thus, for example, simply visiting and encouraging others to visit the sacred sites in the area, such as the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception and the Franciscan Monastery in Washington, the shrines in Emmitsburg and Philidelphia, and the like, gives us a sense of sacredness incarnate in this land. Likewise, we are blessed with Catholic bookstores, good Catholic periodicals and websites, Catholic television, radio, music and art. If we put the effort into it we can find and develop a profound culture (whether books, fiction and nonfiction, music, art, movies, and the like) that promotes our faith. Such culture gives us and others true joy by presenting the holy in visible form and thus encouraging ourselves and others to reach deeper. As the late Holy Father Pope John Paul II said in his 1995 Letter to Artists, “Every genuine artistic intuition goes beyond what the senses perceive and, reaching beneath reality's surface, strives to interpret its hidden mystery. The intuition itself springs from the depths of the human soul, where the desire to give meaning to one's own life is joined by the fleeting vision of beauty and of the mysterious unity of things. All artists experience the unbridgeable gap which lies between the work of their hands, however successful it may be, and the dazzling perfection of the beauty glimpsed in the ardor of the creative moment: what they manage to express in their painting, their sculpting, their creating is no more than a glimmer of the splendor which flared for a moment before the eyes of their spirit. Believers find nothing strange in this: they know that they have had a momentary glimpse of the abyss of light which has its original wellspring in God.” By tapping into this artistic genius that has enlivened the people of God throughout the ages, we can experience, and help others to experience, the glory and splendor of truth that leads us to true freedom and joy.
Bishop Loverde also calls for us to respond to the anti-evangelization culture that would reject moral and spiritual truths with a deeper personal conversion on the part of Christians so that our lives reflect the joy of the Gospel. For, in order for the world to see the freedom and joy that comes from conversion from sin and life in Christ, we must ourselves show them that example. Thus, Bishop Loverde begins his response to the anti-evangelization culture with a section entitled, “We must hold up a mirror to our own lives.” When we acknowledge sinfulness and try, with the grace of God, to overcome it, the resulting joyful advancement in the ways of the Gospel will lead to world to see in visible form the effects of the invisible grace of God. As Bishop Loverde writes, “Nothing is more persuasive than the example we set by being honest with ourselves about the ways we have failed. By calling ourselves sinners rather than calling others sinners we can open up space for the healing of God’s mercy.” Thus it is that, with the grace of God, we can overcome the barriers that keep us from that joy and so radiate the splendor of God; we can become that light of the world, that salt of the earth, that city upon a hill that Jesus speaks of. See Matt. 5:13-16. When people see even the faithful pursuing greater and greater holiness, and joyful at the adventure of advancing in the ways of faith, they will eventually wonder where it comes from; and thus is born the desire for the answer in Jesus Christ and His Gospel.
IV. Business and Complacency within the Faithful
But, we must realize that the faithful themselves often do not reflect or live out the joy of the faith, and thus keep others from seeing this attraction of the faith. Pope Francis and Bishop Loverde also identify a certain pessimism, or maintenance model, as a barrier to the true thrill of delving deeper into the greater kingdom and bringing that kingdom to others. As Pope Francis points out near the beginning of his apostolic exhortation, “the desolation born of a covetous yet complacent heart” is one of the main barriers to joy in the modern world. Evangelii Gaudium 2. He later describes in particular two of the barriers to true joy and evangelization, namely, a desire to keep one’s time for oneself and a certain complacency with the way things are. Regarding the first issue, he says that many people, including even clergy and consecrated religious, are reluctant to give of their free time, either to others or to a deep encounter with God. See Evangelii Gaudum 81 Likewise, Bishop Loverde addresses as one of the barriers both to prayer and to evangelization the idea that we are too busy and cannot add one more thing to our lives. See Sent Forth With Hearts on Fire 40. It is ironic but true that, in the modern world, with all of its labor saving devises, we seem to be more hurried than ever, more rushed to pass right by the deepest callings of our lives.
In response, Pope Francis says that we do not necessarily have to do more things, but rather to prioritize in our lives the things we are doing, not to be attached to obvious success or the accomplishment of great projects, but rather to be realistic in what we can do, to persevere over the course of time, and to join all things to Christ and in relationship with other people. See Evangelii Gaudium 82. Sometimes that will mean accepting that we will not advance in the world as much as others do who have no other goal. It will likely mean limiting time with cheap, easy entertainment. And it also means staying with projects, whether within the Church or on one’s own in the long run, rather than demanding quick success. Likewise, Bishop Loverde recommends beginning one’s progress in the faith and spiritual enrichment within the family, the domestic church, and so consecrating seemingly ordinary aspects of life, seeing in them to joy of the greater kingdom, as Jesus did with His 30 years at Bethlehem, Egypt and Nazareth. There should be a recognition that we progress in prayer and with others “as companions on the way” in Pope Francis’ terms, and place our activities within that context, rather than have prayer and time with others fit it after busyness and entertainment are completed.
Pope Francis also warns again a “spiritual wordliness”, that is, on either simply gaining more and more information and learning without putting into practice, or making projects central to one’s life. Pope Francis warns against drawing pride from great knowledge or great projects, as though that is what we need to be filled with divine light. See Evangelii Gaudium 93-97. Now, as stated before, increased understanding of the faith and putting the faith into practice in material ways are crucial both for our own advancement and for the sake of making the faith credible to the world. But always and everywhere, Jesus Christ who brings us into the grace of God must be central. We should have, as G.K. Chesterton wrote, “the joy of all lowly things.” Pope Francis thus calls for “breathing in the pure air of the Holy Spirit who frees us from self-centeredness cloaked in an outward religiosity bereft of God.” Evangelii Gaudium 97. It is always important to pray before and after any projects or learning and ask whether and how they uphold God’s glory. And, as the Pope says, it is crucial to recognize the goodness and the accomplishments of others, to take joy in them as well as our own. For, as St. Paul says in First Corinthians, there are many gifts, many accomplishments, but they all come from the same God and Father, the same Lord Jesus Christ, the same Holy Spirit. And, as he goes on to say, all of these gifts and accomplishments must be guided by divine love, the love that gives us true joy of the Gospel. See 1 Cor. 12:4-13:13.
Conclusion
In short, the Pope and Bishop Loverde are realistic about the challenges at hand, but we can see them not as barriers but as opportunities to rely more and more on the grace won by Jesus Christ. Thus does Pope Francis conclude the section on challenges to evangelization and joy by saying, “Challenges exist to be overcome! Let us be realistic, but without losing our joy, our boldness, our hope-filled commitment. Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of missionary vigor!” Evangelii Gaudium 109. The next two talks will address how, with this joy, boldness, this commitment and vigor, we can make this world reflect more and more of the kingdom of heaven, and how we ourselves receive this vision through lives of deep prayer.