Embracing the Joy of the Gospel Again

Exhaustion, stress, feeling overwhelmed… These feelings can become a part of our lives, pushing all of the joy to the back burner. Life’s beautiful moments of happiness become almost an after-thought in the middle of the daily grind.

It always amazes me how God uses little moments in our day to speak to us. How often our blindness is reveled in the subtle ways. One such moment came my way at mass the other day. The homily focused on how our lives can get overrun when we spend so much time preaching the gospel we forget the joy of it. Father told the story of a pastor’s wife who crashed in a heap of desolation and begged her husband to preach the Good News to her again. She felt like she was so caught up in everything she was doing she had forgotten the mission.

How easy to relate to that poor women. How quick we are to forget the mighty works of the Lord, and turn into grumbling Israelites. The reality is that without joy, our preaching is empty.

In a recent interview, Pope Francis spoke of happiness and the importance it plays in our lives. The pope tells us that “The Romans have a saying, which can be taken as a point of reference,” “They say: Campa e lascia campà (Live and let live). That’s the first step to peace and happiness.” He then went on to list other ways we can find including, “giving oneself to others.” “If one gets tired,” he said, “one runs the risk of being egoistic, and stagnant water is the first to be corrupted.”

Unfortunately the comments on this lovely piece about happiness were quickly overrun with unhappy people criticizing the pope. The people commenting seem to have forgotten the fact that Pope Francis is the same Holy Father who devoted his first Apostolic Exhortation to the topic of joy, specifically, the joy of preaching the Gospel.
Let’s revisit Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of The Gospel) again:

“The great danger in today’s world, pervaded as it is by consumerism, is the desolation and anguish born of a complacent yet covetous heart, the feverish pursuit of frivolous pleasures, and a blunted conscience. Whenever our interior life becomes caught up in its own interests and concerns, there is no longer room for others, no place for the poor. God’s voice is no longer heard, the quiet joy of his love is no longer felt, and the desire to do good fades. This is a very real danger for believers too. Many fall prey to it, and end up resentful, angry and listless. That is no way to live a dignified and fulfilled life; it is not God’s will for us, nor is it the life in the Spirit which has its source in the heart of the risen Christ.
I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since “no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord”.[1] The Lord does not disappoint those who take this risk; whenever we take a step towards Jesus, we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with open arms. Now is the time to say to Jesus: “Lord, I have let myself be deceived; in a thousand ways I have shunned your love, yet here I am once more, to renew my covenant with you. I need you. Save me once again, Lord, take me once more into your redeeming embrace”. How good it feels to come back to him whenever we are lost! Let me say this once more: God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy. Christ, who told us to forgive one another “seventy times seven” (Mt 18:22) has given us his example: he has forgiven us seventy times seven. Time and time again he bears us on his shoulders. No one can strip us of the dignity bestowed upon us by this boundless and unfailing love. 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. Let us not flee from the resurrection of Jesus, let us never give up, come what will. May nothing inspire more than his life, which impels us onwards!”

True joy is something precious that needs to be shared with all we meet.  To embrace the joy that comes from God is the goal in this life. Are we willing to embrace the kind of Christian joy that comes from authentically living the Gospel?