Can You “Practice” Joy?

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How should you judge whether a Mass, or church service, was good or bad?

For me, among the criteria is whether or not you leave happier than you went into church. But not in the same sense as being happy because your stock went up, or your team won, or your daughter was student of the month. No, it’s a deeper sense of happiness that is probably better described as “joy.”

“Joy” is a term you don’t hear much these days. Is that because the world has a deficit of joy? Maybe.  

An online dictionary equates happiness with joy, both described as emotions that result from “good fortune, pleasure, or contentment.” One dictionary’s secondary definition of joy is “a source or cause of keen pleasure or delight; something or someone greatly valued or appreciated,” and we’ll get back to that second definition. But for the Christian, joy is much more than a passing emotion.

Contrasts Happiness and Joy

The Catholic archbishop of Melbourne in Australia, Peter Comensoli, contrasts happiness and joy. “Happiness,” he wrote in a recent edition of the diocesan newspaper, “is a consequence – an outcome, and not an action or way of being.

“Sure, we all want to be happy, and hope that happiness might be our final goal in life. But ‘being happy’ will not get us there; you can’t practice happiness; either you have it or you don’t. Joy, on the other hand, is precisely something we can each practice in our lives, because rejoicing is something we can do along the way, and not simply some end product to be achieved.

“So, when (St.) Paul called upon his friends to rejoice always, he was encouraging them to take up a way of living in the Lord that would bring hope and love.”

But the second definition from the online dictionary isn’t far off, because for the Christian, at least, joy comes from “someone greatly valued or appreciated.” That is Jesus, of course.

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And that brings us to a 2018 treatise of Pope Francis called Guadate et Exsultate, or “Rejoice and Be Glad.” Francis has provided constant reminders, through his words and way of living, that Christianity is a religion of joy.

“The prophets proclaimed the times of Jesus, in which we now live, as a revelation of joy,” he writes. His examples: “Shout and sing for joy!” (Is 12:6). “Break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the Lord has comforted his people, and he will have compassion on his afflicted” (Is 49:13). “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!” And “Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!” (Nehemiah 8:10).

The joy we should feel when we grasp the reality of the Incarnation – that God became a human being – “is not the joy held out by today’s individualistic and consumerist culture,” he continues. “Consumerism only bloats the heart. It can offer occasional and passing pleasures, but not joy.” 

So, how can you maintain joy when things aren’t going well, when your life is a mess, when you’ve lost confidence in yourself and in God?

Not Dependent on How You're Feeling

I’m no expert, but I think Comensoli’s advice above is relevant, because “joy” for the Christian isn’t dependent on how you’re feeling from day to day. Instead, it’s a choice, something that people searching for God strive for in their search. And for people searching for God in the Christian tradition, it’s a matter of partaking in the joy of the gospel.

Jose Antonio Pagola, the Spanish theologian and Scripture scholar, writes that Jesus nourished a sense of joy in his disciples, and they responded.

“Living with him was a feast,” Pagola writes. “It felt like a village wedding feast. The meals (with him) were the best part. …Everyone could see in the joy of Jesus’ followers that God is good news for the lost.”