A few thoughts on Christian Joy

December 12, 2004

Pleasure, as distinct from joy, makes a very poor showing in the New Testament. Although the actual word does indeed occur, it does so on only five occasions and on none of these is the impression being conveyed that it is a particularly desirable or noble frame of mind. Rather the opposite. In the letter to Titus, Paul describes himself as once 'being subject to various passions and pleasures' [Titus 3:3]

Joy, by contrast both as a noun and a verb occurs on well over 70 occasions. It appears to have been a great favourite with Saint Paul , a fact which may help to reduce if not entirely to efface the image of the great apostle as something of a killjoy. On most occasions the joy we are to experience and express is on the one hand a state of consciousness, which is under our control and on the other it is usually connected with something or someone else, above all with the Lord Jesus or with God himself.

So Saint Paul writes to his converts in Philippi ; 'Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say Rejoice' [Philippians 4:4] Here we find the two elements juxtaposed. Joy, rejoicing, is something we can express and is not therefore like a mood or a cast of character, possessed by some but not .by others. It is something which lies within the reach of all, as the name of today's Sunday, Gaudete Sunday makes clear. Rejoice Sunday.

Joy, not lugubriousness marked by a dour countenance, is to be the trade mark of the Christian, the outward of inward truth. Alas we do not always find it. And the reason for this absence is not simply the possession of a sombre temperament, though it could be. It really originates in the failure of the noble truths which are the very stuff of our lives as Christians to take hold of us and make us joyful . If we really believed that God both made and loved us and that to show his love for us had sent his only Son to be among us what a difference that ought to make to our fragmented lives. It should fill us with unspeakable joy. After all, when Saint Paul wrote the stirring words which form the opening of today's Mass, he did so when he himself was in prison. If he could even so take on board the importance of joy, could not the same be true of us as well?

Fr Anthony Meredith SJ