“And the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit”[1] This was St. Luke’s final remark about how Paul and Barnabas were driven out of Antioch.
“And if we knock again, and the porter come out in anger to drive us away with oaths and blows, as if we were vile impostors, saying, `Begone, miserable robbers! to the hospital, for here you shall neither eat nor sleep!' - and if we accept all this with patience, with joy, and with charity, O Brother Leo, write that this indeed is perfect joy.”[2] Poor Br. Leo dared to ask St. Francis of Assisi what perfect joy was and this was what he got.
It has often been noted that one of the oddest things about the saints is their constant and enduring joy. Even while being roasted alive, even while enduring poverty and rejection, the Christian remains joyful. To the outside world this is crazy. Beatings and persecutions are not fun by anybody’s standards. It would all seem absurd, except for the God-man who is the source of their joy.
I remember being in middle school and thinking myself a relatively happy person. I had a good family, I got good grades, I was a competitive swimmer and a good pianist, what more could I want? But then I was at Mass one day and for the first time in my life, I encountered Christ. I heard a sermon preached on the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. The idea that what appeared to be mere bread could be the actual body and blood of Jesus shocked me and at first I refused to believe it. But for just a moment, I considered the possibility that maybe, against all laws of nature and reasoning, what Fr. Ted said was actually true.
In that moment, I experienced what I suspect the two disciples on the road to Emmaus experienced: I recognized Him in the breaking of the bread and my heart burned within me. Suddenly I felt overwhelmed by this burning love, this joy that seemed to radiate from the tabernacle. I was brought to tears by it. I felt like my heart was on fire and that warmth was radiating out to my fingertips. Suddenly I knew as a matter of simple observation what before I had only guessed at intellectually: that He was the one my heart was longing for, that He brought me a joy that I could never have imagined, and everything else paled in comparison.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.”[3]
Herein lies the secret to the joy of the saints: that Jesus Christ is the pearl of greatest price and they would sell everything they have in order to spend eternity with Him.
And it would be worth it.
Of course this sounds absurd. The conventional wisdom is that nothing is worth selling everything for. When we were kids, our mothers scolded us promptly for giving away our lunches for a Pokémon card. As adults, selling the family homestead for tickets to the Super Bowl game would be met with righteous fury. Nothing is worth selling everything for.
Except Jesus. Every Christian who has encountered Our Lord, from the disciples on the road to Emmaus to the elderly woman at daily Mass, knows by matter of simple observation that Jesus is worth leaving all behind for, because He alone offers a joy that makes all else pale by comparison. Only in light of His love and the joy that it brings can the lives of the saints and the message of the Gospel be made intelligible.
“Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.”[4]
Christ calls us to evangelize, the Christian claim that happiness consists in poverty, meekness and persecution, is not easy to believe. Those who hear us have to know that what we say, however counter-intuitive, is real. This is why our example is crucial. When they see this life lived with joy greater than they have seen before, then they know that the Risen Lord whom we preach is real.
Fortunately for us, Christ’s joy is contagious. When a person has a deep encounter with the love of Jesus Christ, it is impossible for him to keep it to himself.[5] It is too intense. Mother Teresa often commented that following the Annunciation, Our Lady, having been given an unimaginable grace, went immediately to her cousin Elizabeth, to share Jesus with others. It is in the nature of God’s love that when we are set on fire with it, when it most consumes us with joy, that then the fire must spread and that love must be brought to others.
You might object that not even the saints were always in a state of perpetual joy. You would be right. What drove the saints was not joy but love. Because of their encounter with the amazing love of Jesus, they knew a great joy. But also because of that love, they knew great sufferings. Because they loved, it hurt them to see Jesus despised and rejected by others, it hurt them to see their neighbors in pain, it hurt them to be separated from Christ even for a moment, and when they willingly sold everything to follow Him, that process of purification hurt. Love was what they pursued at all costs, joy was merely a byproduct of love.
However, notice that even the suffering saints radiated a joy that ordinary people don’t. Mother Teresa suffered terribly in darkness. Yet everyone who encountered her commented on the love and the joy she radiated. She radiated Christ even though the cross she voluntarily took up meant sacrificing the feeling of His love and joy.
How do we become like these saints? How do we authentically witness to Jesus Christ and the joy He brings? Through prayer. We abandon ourselves to the God who loves us. We ask that we, in our littleness, may decrease and He may increase so that His love and His joy that first brought us to faith might in turn radiate out to other people. This is at the heart of evangelization. Apart from this interior conviction, apart from His grace, our words will ring hollow. Only if we radiate Him and His joy will others know the greatness of the God whom we preach.
[1] Acts 13:52 (NABRE translation used from hereon)
[2] Br. Ugolino, The Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi, (New York: Heritage Press, 1965), Bk. 1, Ch. 8 https://www.ewtn.com/library/mary/flowers1.htm
[3] Matthew 13:45-46
[4] Mark 16:15
[5] “Here we find the source and inspiration of all our efforts at evangelization. For if we have received the love which restores meaning to our lives, how can we fail to share that love with others?” – Francis. Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel). No. 24, 2013. Holy See. Accessed may 3, 2018. https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html
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