I have chosen the theme of the “Joy of the Gospel” for my preaching this summer because gospel joy is something all Christians need to be constantly reminded about. Gospel joy—the joy of the Gospel Who is Jesus Christ our Savior—is the antidote to an ailment in the spiritual life found in many Christians, and perhaps in all Christians at various points in their baptized life.
Symptoms include feeling bogged down at times by the challenges of life in Christian community: things happen in a parish in ways we do not like; people in the parish say things that rub us the wrong way, or even hurt us, sometimes humiliate us; sometimes people leave a church for a different community, sometimes they move away; sometimes we feel that we do not get on socially that well with other parishioners. What’s more, the symptoms get worse when at times we inwardly feel sluggish spiritually. We do not feel the warming presence of the Holy Spirit. Our prayer seems empty, saying the same words and praying about the same things all the time, but nothing seems to change or improve. And because of this, we give into the temptation to allow our discipline of worship to slide into a monotony of worship, even just going through the motions robotically. This can lead to dissatisfaction with worship, which can lead to complaining about this, that, or the other thing in the life of a parish. It can lead as well to thoughts of leaving not only a church, but leaving the faith altogether.
All of this is well documented in the spiritual literature of the Holy Church. The root cause of these sorts of things I have just listed is a spiritual condition called “spiritual desolation.” Like we have different kinds of physical sickness, we can have kinds of spiritual sickness. Spiritual desolation covers many symptoms, and what it means is a state of spiritual dryness, feeling disconnected from God, and losing energy for spiritual activities. It means we do not feel God’s presence, and lose heart in being a disciple. Reactions in what we say and how we act vary according to personality, but the root cause is spiritual desolation, and it is very common. It has happened in every Christian church everywhere in the world for nearly two thousand years.
The antidote to this spiritual ailment is the joy of the Gospel. And here precisely is where knowing the story of the Visitation of the Virgin Mother to Saint Elisabeth, and meditating upon it, is spiritually medicinal. The joy shared by Mary and Elisabeth together is palpable: not only celebrating being a mother, but celebrating the revelation and taking flesh of their Lord and our Lord, their Savior and our Savior. Their joy is so powerful it fills us with joy when we meditate on their moment described by Saint Luke. The awe and wonder they had is exactly what the Church has come to call Holy Fear: awe, wonder, trembling. This is the fear that is the beginning of Wisdom, meaning the beginning of the Joy of the Gospel in our words and deeds, which illumines our hearts and purifies our mind. Sharing in the infectious joy of the Visitation, then, is the beginning of Wisdom.
With all of that said, let us hear again what our Lord Jesus says to us through Saint Mark: “The Kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed upon the ground, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he knows not how.” This is a parable about Gospel Joy, which when we have it, we scatter seed upon the ground, seed that grows by the power of the Holy Spirit. S. Gregory the Great, Church Father and one of the key voices in our ancient tradition, has this to say about this parable: “A person casts seed into the ground, when he places a good intention in his heart.” We are able to place a truly good intention in our heart when the joy of the Gospel, the joy of Christ, becomes our joy, as it is the joy of Mary and Elisabeth.
Living not as the Pharisee who judges and criticizes others, but rather living as the Publican who prays constantly knowing the joy of the Gospel, our heart belongs to Jesus. Placing our good intentions in our heart that loves Jesus, S. Gregory teaches, participates in the Kingdom of Heaven, which is life in the Holy Spirit. And when the seeds of our good intentions begin to grow in the world, while these may seem at first small as a mustard bush: small, ordinary, and nothing special, the Gospel tells us that when something of the Spirit is born in this world, what is small by worldly standards is immeasurable and inexhaustible by God’s, because its source is God Himself.
When we have a joyful heart, the power of the Holy Spirit flows through us, and also, we are able to follow the holy doctrine of S. Paul, who insists that we always aim to please God, whether we are at home or away, and especially in our community life: always seek to please Him. When our heart is full of the joy of the Gospel, our intention naturally is to want to please God. Not complain, not lose faith, but seek to please God in all we do and say.
The key thing is this: what makes Christianity happen is gospel joy: it is the antidote to spiritual desolation, and through it we plant seeds, good intentions in our heart, inward seeds to which God gives the growth: all because our heart finds joy in the Gospel, inexhaustible joy in Jesus Christ, a joy that fills us and inspires us to love Him Who is our Bridegroom, even Jesus Christ, Who with the Father and the Holy Ghost, is ever one God, unto the ages of ages. Amen.