Question 9.140
9.140 What exactly is meant by Christian joy?
It is important to recall that Christian joy has never resembled an effortless happiness, as on a path where we fly from one victory to the next. I do not want to forget the words of Saint Peter: âFor we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but we were eyewitnesses of his majestyâ (2 Pet 1:16). As for the Apostle of the Gentiles, he considers evangelization a demanding duty. In fact, Paul often presents his ministry in terms of combat, sufferings, and trials. Adherence to Christ always involves great joy, but also a communion in the mystery of his Passion, death, and Resurrection: âNow I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christâs afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church, of which I became a minister according to the divine office which was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully knownâ (Col 1:24-25). The Word of God very often causes him to be âin toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churchesâ (2 Cor 11:27-28).
And so Francis, taking Paul VI as his inspiration, writes: âAn evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral! Let us recover and deepen our enthusiasm, that âdelightful and comforting joy of evangelizing, even when it is in tears that we must sow. ⌠And may the world of our time, which is searching, sometimes with anguish, sometimes with hope, be enabled to receive the good news not from evangelizers who are dejected, discouraged, impatient, or anxious, but from ministers of the Gospel whose lives glow with fervor, who have first received the joy of Christââ (EG 10, citing Evangelii nuntiandi 75).
Moreover, it is important to recall that the Second Vatican Council marked a turning point in the concept of mission. During a colloquium organized by the Catholic Institute of Higher Studies of the Diocese of Luçon, in March 2013, on the topic of âThe Fiftieth Anniversary of Vatican Council II, a Hermeneutic of Continuityâ, I tried to emphasize that Vatican II was the first reflection on mission within the framework of an ecumenical council. The work had begun at Vatican I, but it was not brought to completion. In the decree Ad gentes on the missionary activity of the Church, there is a change of perspective through the statement that the foundation of this mission is found not solely in the mandate from Jesus, but in the Trinity: âThe pilgrim Church is missionary by her very nature, since it is from the mission of the Son and the mission of Holy Spirit that she draws her origin, in accordance with the decree of God the Fatherâ (AG 2).
If we do not clearly establish the basis for the missionary mandate in the Trinity, there is a risk of reducing the missions to multiple activities of a social nature, to projects for economic development or progress, to political involvement to promote the liberation of oppressed peoples, or to a mere struggle against exclusion. Good things, all of them, and sometimes necessary, but they are distinct from the mission that Jesus entrusted to his disciples. To be a missionary, indeed, does not mean giving things but communicating the foundation of the trinitarian life: the love of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. To be a missionary is to lead people toward a personal experience of the immeasurable love that unites the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit so as to allow oneself to be seized at the same time by the ardent furnace of love that manifested itself so sublimely on the Cross. To be a missionary is to help others to become true disciples of Jesus, to experience a profound friendship with Jesus, and to become one and the same being with Jesus (Rom 6:5).
And so, what happens between Jesus and his disciples is by analogy exactly what happens between the fire and the iron: there really is between Christ and his disciples an ineffable communion of life, of love, of reciprocal knowledge, a union so close that Jesus acts in them and consumes them as though in a blaze. Through the image of iron and fire, which we find in her last manuscript, Saint ThÊrèse of the Child Jesus perceived this symbolic dimension of the depths of the bonds of love between Jesus and those whom he loves. Fire alone has the power to penetrate iron, to imbue it with its own burning substance, to transform it into itself, to make it incandescent so that the iron seems to be identified with the fire and to become one with it. The disciple who is united to Jesus and plunges into the blaze of his pierced Heart can be compared to the burning log that dries out and eliminates all its impurities before being transformed into fire. Missionary work consists not only of communicating a message but also of helping people to encounter Christ and to have an intimate experience of his love.
At the origin of Saint Paulâs conversion there is a discovery: despite his wanderings, Jesus loved him and gave himself up for him, he says to the Galatians. Paul knew that he was a great sinner, but he became aware that God loved him despite his sins. Hence, he understood that nothing was more important than to reveal to the pagans the love of God. For the rest of his life he would meditate on the decisive event on the road to Damascus, in which he experienced Godâs merciful love for him personally.
The source of mission is summed up by Saint John: âThat. . . which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of life. . . , we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing this that our joy may be completeâ (1 Jn 1:1, 3-4).