6. There are Christians whose lives seem like Lent without Easter. I realize of course that joy is not expressed the same way at all times in life, especially at moments of great difficulty. Joy adapts and changes, but it always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved. I understand the grief of people who have to endure great suffering, yet slowly but surely we all have to let the joy of faith slowly revive as a quiet yet firm trust, even amid the greatest distress: “My soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is… But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness… It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord” (Lam 3:17, 21-23, 26).
7. Sometimes we are tempted to find excuses and complain, acting as if we could only be happy if a thousand conditions were met. To some extent this is because our “technological society has succeeded in multiplying occasions of pleasure, yet has found it very difficult to engender joy”. I can say that the most beautiful and natural expressions of joy which I have seen in my life were in poor people who had little to hold on to. I also think of the real joy shown by others who, even amid pressing professional obligations, were able to preserve, in detachment and simplicity, a heart full of faith. In their own way, all these instances of joy flow from the infinite love of God, who has revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ. I never tire of repeating those words of Benedict XVI which take us to the very heart of the Gospel: “Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction”. – from Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis
I can remember when I first heard the song that has the lyrics, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases … .” I have related it in this blog before. You can look it up, but it was in the midst of heartache. That song still touches me when I hear it.
Thus, it touched me powerfully when I read the words of Pope Francis, that some Christians live lives that are like Lent without Easter. We have all met them, dour of face, sour of attitude, and mingy with their love. There is no Easter joy in them and celebration is seen almost as a wicked thing that needs be suppressed. To say that they have participated in the celebration of the Divine Liturgy is simply to say that their body was present in the room. They cannot understand the words which Pope Francis quoted from lamentation, “the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases … .”
G.K Chesterton commented once:
It is so easy to be solemn; it is so hard to be frivolous.
Of one of his books he said:
I cannot understand the people who take literature seriously; but I can love them, and I do. Out of my love I warn them to keep clear of this book. It is a collection of crude and shapeless papers upon current or rather flying subjects; and they must be published pretty much as they stand. They were written, as a rule, at the last moment; they were handed in the moment before it was too late, and I do not think that our commonwealth would have been shaken to its foundations if they had been handed in the moment after. They must go out now, with all their imperfections on their head, or rather on mine; for their vices are too vital to be improved with a blue pencil, or with anything I can think of, except dynamite. Their chief vice is that so many of them are very serious; because I had no time to make them flippant.
As the Pope points out, we can always find excuses and complain. Thus from the dour reformer, who sees frivolity as a mark of one who is not serious about the truly great issues of our time, to the churchman who frowns upon the children running to Christian education, seriousness is often a plague upon our churches. It is, therefore, not surprising that people do not wish to come in to share in such joylessness. It is the dour who keep the non-Christian out of the churches, not the hypocrites.
My wife and I have worked among the poor of the Third World, and this we can confirm. When the poor celebrate in joy, they truly celebrate. Even under conditions which might drive me to despair, many among the poor resist despair and are open-handed in their joy and in their participation in the Church (provided the dour do not stop them for being somehow unworthy). Our Lord was right, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God,” (Luke 6:20, NAS).
The movie “Sister Act” is most definitely not a Christian movie. However, there is a scene when “Sister Mary Clarence” first leads the choir in Salve Regina. They start out in a very standard rendition. But, then, they deviate and do a modern arrangement. As the face of the Mother Superior falls in anger and disappointment, their joyous voices spill out into the street, and as the neighborhood hears the joy that they have not previously heard from the parish, the neighborhood begins to enter in. The priest does not even need to evangelize. He merely waves them in and encourages them to find a pew.
Yes, I am sure the priest began the work of catechism with them after that. But, it was the joy of the Gospel that evangelized them. By the latter part of the movie, the church is full, the neighborhood is being served, and the streets are full of the joy of Christ. Yes, it is a Hollywood movie, but they captured in those vignettes what it means to live out the Joy of the Gospel.
Let us learn to live in Easter and not in Lent! Let our joy bring in those who need to receive the healing touch of the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
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