Last week some readers asked me to talk about joy. Today is the Feast of St. Lawrence who is known as a saint of joy. Legends say that he kept his sense of humor, even during martyrdom. After Pope Sixtus was martyred on August 6, 258, Lawrence, as archdeacon of Rome, was asked to gather up the treasures of the church to turn them over to the Roman government.
He quickly gathered up all the gold candlesticks, money in the treasury, and other objects that were wealth in the world’s eyes and gave them to the poorest people in Rome. When he appeared before the Roman government a few days later, he then came with a collection of the poor, the handicapped, the troubled. With a proud smile, St. Lawrence presented all these as the treasures of the church.
The emperor was not pleased. Legends say Lawrence was roasted instead of beheaded. While on the grid he supposedly said, “Better turn me over. I think I’m done on this side.”
Thomas Merton was once asked what was a sign that God was alive and well in a soul. His answer was, “It’s hard to tell exactly, but a good sense of humor is a solid indicator.”
Hmm. A sense of humor helps us put our troubles in perspective. It keeps us from taking ourselves or our lives too seriously. Perhaps it is a root of joy.
Joy: Fruit of the Holy Spirit
Joy is listed as one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. The list comes from Galatians 5: 22-23. Paul has just listed a catalog of common sins of his day. The church was in a mess! Paul says, in contrast, the fruits of the Spirit are “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” He suggests Christians cultivate these.
While secular definitions of joy describe it much like happiness, saints describe joy as something that comes from within—from God in the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. Christian joy is not dependent on circumstances as happiness is, but it is dependent on roots. Our scriptures today and my tomato garden give us some guidance about some of the roots of joy.
Generosity
In the selection from I Corinthians, Paul says to another church filled with struggles like ours today, “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully….the Lord loves a cheerful giver.”
Generosity is another fruit of the Spirit and it generates a sense of plenty and of connection that I have found to be roots of joy. Paul goes on to say that not only does God love a cheerful giver, but God gives him a security that is also a root of joy. Paul says, “The one who supplies seed for the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed and increase the harvest of your righteousness.” Generosity fosters dependence on God—perhaps the taproot of joy.
Emptiness
The Psalm today moves beyond generosity as a source of joy to emptiness. In the psalmist’s day, there were no banks or social services. A person in need depended upon the willingness of friends and family. Often what was borrowed was of the lender’s sustenance. It wasn’t true surplus; it just wasn’t something needed for today. To lend in such circumstances meant to have enough faith in God that you trusted you would either get repaid or God would send someone to help you when you needed it.
Being willing to trust God enough to empty your coffers or your soul to meet the needs of others is a root of joy. This part of joy is counter-intuitive. How can giving up security give me the sense of plenty that joy implies? How can spending myself give me joy?
This week has not been a joyful week for me. I’m in serious storm and stress. My heart has complained, “God, how can I write about what isn’t in me? How can I write about being full of God when I’m in a state of depletion?
As I’ve sat with that, I’ve gone back to St. Mother Teresa’s struggles and the joy that she radiated and saw as essential for any Missionary of Charity. “Joy is the net of love by which we catch souls,” she said. “Do not let the past disturb you. Leave everything to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Start again with joy.” “If in your work you have difficulties and you accept them with joy—with a big smile—in this, as in any other thing, they will see your good works and glorify the Father.”
Smiling, even in emptiness, is a root of joy. Mother Teresa also said, “Everyone is beautiful when they smile.” Somehow, smiling brings out in me a sense of beauty and of love.
Depending on the level of current difficulty, choosing to wear a big smile can be a tough discipline or temporarily impossible. People who have lost family in the pandemic, perhaps without even being able to be with them as they passed—they are less likely to be in joy. It is hard to smile through tears. Those who have lost businesses, jobs, and savings—for them joy would be hard at present. Those who are trying to work from home while caring for children and who soon will also perhaps have to oversee several children’s schoolwork—for them, the energy to smile may be lacking.
And there are many tragedies in life far beyond these.
Yet, even all these can be empty…and, in time, emptiness can lead to joy. It has happened to me. I have seen it be true with others.
Vision
Today’s Gospel talks about the seed that falls to the ground and dies…to give birth to a plant. That seed has vision imprinted in its DNA. It is transformed into the new plant which gives fruit. Studies of resiliency through the years show the single most important criteria for overcoming hardship is a sense of meaning. St. Lawrence had a sense of meaning in his martyrdom. He was dying for his faith…and his last actions spoke clearly of the meaning of his life.
As I have reflected this week on my less than usual joy, it is vision which I must recover. Pandemic and polarities have caused us to lose structures for our vision of what it means to live the kerygma—the good news of the Gospel. Yet, at the core, it is that vision that we are all beloved children of God, called to be incorporated into God’s life, saved from our selfish greediness by God Himself who both gave Himself up for us and showed us how to live in a new way, the Kingdom of God—that is the vision that in itself gives joy.
My Tomatoes
The picture today is of some of my tomatoes, growing on the side of my house. They are the fruit of my garden just now—and how delicious! Not everything I planted in this first garden in years has done well. But the conditions are just right for tomatoes to grow. And so they bear good fruit.
Joy is a FRUIT of the Holy Spirit—not a GIFT of the Holy Spirit. I—we—must use the gifts (piety, fear of the Lord, fortitude, wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and counsel) to grow the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, etc.
I planted those tomatoes and had to care for them for more than two months before they bore fruit. One thing God and I did–we watered their roots. God did it with rain. I did it with a hose. Either way, care of roots yields bountiful fruits.
Prayer:
Lord, show me HOW to grow my spiritual garden so that I may have enough generosity, emptiness, and vision to maintain joy…and share it, loan it, and radiate it…for that is how Your Kingdom is built. I am low on joy today, Lord, empty. Water my roots. Be Thou my Vision. Let me bear fruits.
