Joy

All of our experiences of true joy have something in common: we are perceiving something being given to us. This is different than the pleasure or satisfaction we feel when we “get our way” or “have everything we want.” Rather, joy is given to us by God. It can’t be engineered or wrestled to the ground; joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Was there joy in the world before the Descent of the Holy Spirit? Well, the Lord’s wish for His joy to be in us that our joy “might be complete” reveals that while there was a kind of joy in the world before Him, it was, as all things were, unfulfilling, whereas now that He has come from the Father, and has, on our behalf, received the anointing of the Holy Spirit perfectly, our joy too might now be perfect, or, fulfilling, or, as He said, “complete.”

In these years following the Vatican Council there’s been a lot of talk about joy. Many church sanctuaries are decorated with giant banners advertising it. And yet, so few of joy’s proponents actually experience it. Instead, we deprive ourselves of it by grasping for it through a program or initiative (or a banner). This is why those who say most loudly, “See how joyful we are!” often seem to be the saddest of all.

This is what I want to say here. If joy is the fruit born of receiving the circumstances of our life as gift, no wonder we’re left with sadness after we take the fruit. We’re like Adam and Eve. We grasp for joy, trying to take it, as we reach for the fruit. And while we may experience fleeting pleasure, we are left feeling unfulfilled.

In fact, joy is so much more fulfilling than pleasure that Saint Paul felt no need to run away from prison after an earthquake opened the doors to his cell. He accepted his circumstances as being given to him by God, which so filled him with the fruit of joy he saw no gain in running away. We saw the same thing in Father Walter Ciszek, who was sustained by joy in the prison camps of Soviet Russia, and in Cardinal Van Thuan, who received joy by accepting his solitary confinement in Vietnam. Not surprisingly, all these men caused the conversion of their prison guards. It was the Holy Spirit, of course, and the surest sign of His presence: joy.

Because the Holy Spirit is a gift. He is the very life of God, so He is never taken, never earned, never programmed. He is love, and love is always given freely, or it is no love at all.

We might even say, this is one way to understand the difference between love and lust. Love is “I give myself to you, and I receive you as a gift from God.” Lust is “I take you, and you take me.” I remember John Paul II got himself in hot water by saying that even married couples could commit the sin of lust with one another. What?! How? By taking one another for pleasure, instead of giving themselves to one another as the gift from God that they are. Only the spouses who receive one another as a gift will have joy and freedom.

I experienced something similar with golf. A strong initial attraction, then obsession. Then the lust for it, which caused me to resent ever having met the game. Then, I entered the seminary, which created some space between me and golf, while at the same time teaching me to receive all of life as a gift, bringing a new joy to my experience of golf. Joy returns to us whenever we receive our lives as given, no matter how challenging some gifts may be. +