James Martin, SJ
The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness, and loneliness. With Christ joy is constantly born anew. In this Exhortation I wish to encourage the Christian faithful to embark upon a new chapter of evangelization marked by this joy, while pointing out new paths for the Church’s journey in years to come.
—POPE FRANCIS
One of the most well known documents in modern Church history is formally known by the rather unwieldy title Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. It is more commonly known by the first two words of the original Latin translation, Gaudium et Spes.
Identifying Vatican documents by their words is a Church convention. Consequently, the author or authors, either a pope or an ecumenical council, know that the world will pay heed to the words chosen to begin a document. Thus, when Saint John XXIII wrote his great encyclical on war and peace, he entitled it Pacem in Terris (“Peace on Earth”) to telegraph its overall theme. Saint John Paul II began his encyclical on Christian unity with Jesus’s own words expressing his desire for the unity of the disciples, Ut Unum Sint (“That They May Be One”). And when Pope Benedict XVI issued his first encyclical, a theological meditation on love, he had a simple but profound message for the world: Deus Caritas Est. “God Is Love.”
But some may not know that the first words of Gaudium et Spes were not always “joy and hope.” At the beginning of the Second Vatican Council, the committee that authored the preliminary document began with the words Gaudium et Luctus: “joy and grief.” By the end of the council that would turn the Church more toward the modern world, the assembled bishops decided on a more positive approach. They would not speak to the world of joy and grief, but something else: joy and hope.
These two attributes underlie Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, but he has chosen as its main theme joy.
Now, it would be foolish to try to summarize this masterpiece of theological and ecclesial thinking. Instead, let me focus on those first few important words, which give this letter to the Church its theme.
Pope Francis wants us to understand that the Gospel brings us joy. His exhortation tells us this. His homilies remind us of this. His off-the-cuff remarks encourage us to remember this. His actions invite us to recognize this. In fact, his whole being proclaims this. Whether Francis is hugging a small boy who unexpectedly rushes onto a stage to embrace him, wading into the crowds during an overflow papal audience in St. Peter’s Square, or smiling as the “Popemobile” plunges into an adoring crowd during World Youth Day, he exudes joy. This is not to downplay the joy of other popes. By no means. But there is something in Pope Francis’s words and deeds that seems to communicate, as he says, the joy of the Gospel.
So may I invite you to reread the first sentence of his apostolic exhortation? All those who encounter Jesus, the pope says, are filled with joy.
This is true on at least two levels. In the Gospels, we can see clearly how joy results—erupts, really—when people meet Jesus of Nazareth. Those who are sick are healed. Those who are tormented by demons are exorcised. Those who are hungry or thirsty are filled. Those who are excluded are included. And those who were lonely find a community. Of course, New Testament scholars would remind us that amazement and praise also attend these encounters, particularly in the miracle stories, but it is joy that leaps off the page as surely as the paralyzed people leap from their mats after being healed.
Today, joy is a seriously underappreciated facet of Jesus’s proclamation of the reign of God. And that is something of a surprise, because the word occurs, in various forms, over and over in the Gospels. The disciples rejoiced. People are overjoyed. Jesus himself explicitly speaks about joy. Jesus’s presence among the people of his time marks the inauguration of the reign of God, and an encounter with that reign ushers people into a place of joy.
But on another level, that statement is true today. That is, the joy of encountering Christ is not something confined to first-century Palestine, but is available to all of us today. What does that mean? Encountering Jesus through Scripture, in the Mass, in private prayer, in relationships with one another, and in service to the poor are all ways to encounter Christ. And, as people who have had these encounters know, this experience brings joy.
Why is this? As Pope Francis says in the first lines of Evangelii Gaudium, it is because we are freed from sin (since we know the right way to live), freed from sorrow (since we know that suffering and death are not the last word), and freed from loneliness (since we know that Jesus is our friend and invites us into the community). What reaction can we have other than joy?
In Christ this joy is, as Pope Francis says, “constantly born anew.” Even if it sometimes seems that we are moving away from Christ, retrogressing in our spiritual life, or “backsliding,” as our evangelical brothers and sisters say, Christ always offers us the opportunity to reestablish a relationship with Him. Even in our sinfulness Christ offers us the opportunity for forgiveness, a new start. And so our joy is always being renewed.
Why do we associate Christianity so little with joy? The reasons are multiple, but they probably start with a misunderstanding of who Jesus was. Because the writers of the Gospels felt the need to recount in detail the story of Jesus’s death (since to early Christians the notion that Jesus had to suffer and die in such an apparently “shameful” way was initially hard to comprehend), a large portion of the Gospels are focused on Jesus’s suffering. This is not to say the Passion and Death of Jesus are somehow unimportant. They are, of course, central to our faith. But the Gospels focus so much on this aspect of Jesus’s life that the more joyful episodes can seem less important. Thus, Jesus was seen for too long as primarily, and only, the “Man of Sorrows.” (If you have any doubts of this, check out the art in your church. How often do you see him smiling?)
But Jesus is also very much the “Man of Joys.” Think of how many of the Gospel passages referring to Jesus’s ministry describe inherently joyful activities. We’ve already mentioned the healing of the sick and the raising of the dead, but Jesus also spent time with the apostles, shared in table fellowship with his disciples, attended a wedding party on at least one occasion, and enjoyed the company of his friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus in their house in Bethany. Jesus’s ministry was suffused with joy.
In fact, the most basic message of the Christian life—which is that Christ is risen—is one of exceeding joy. What emotion do you think the disciples experienced on Easter Sunday? And what led them to proclaim the Gospel? Joy is the beginning, middle, and end of the Christian life.
Pope Francis invites us to experience this joy in this marvelous document in a variety of ways. Evangelii Gaudium is in fact a kind of primer for how the Church can enter joyfully into a new era. Using the rubric of the “New Evangelization,” Francis invites the Church to explore the riches of its tradition while not being afraid to open a “new chapter.” And this is possible because, like the disciples on Easter Sunday, we know that all things are possible with God. We know the Holy Spirit is with us in all things. And we know that Christ’s message is one of joy.
When I first read the title of this exhortation, and grasped the pope’s overarching message, I rejoiced. I hope that his words have been an occasion of prayer for you but also one of joy.