Bring On the Joy-Bringers!

A Deficit of Joy

I’m probably not genetically predisposed for joy. My immigrant forebears came from solid German and Irish stock. We tend to be very sure about everything and are ready to fight (or at least argue) for it. I know ways in which that inheritance has been a gift for which I am very grateful. But the shadow side is that I have a prenatal tendency to take things too seriously and have sometimes experienced what Frank Bruni, writing in The New York Times, called “a deficit of joy.”

Describing Florida’s Governor/Presidential candidate, Bruni wrote, “His joylessness is why it’s so unpleasant to watch him … every smile comes across as an onerous homework assignment in a class you were forced to take for your major.” But it’s not unique to DeSantis. Bruni pointed to a more wide-spread deficit when he wrote, “We’ve entered a scarier, stranger chapter of American political life — of American life, period — in which a genuine smile may seem discordant and a grudging one in tune with mournful times.”

Gifted with Joy-Bringers

If Bruni is correct about our “mournful times,” we won’t be helped by a “grudging” smile or snarky humor, of which we have an over-abundance. Across the years I’ve both needed and been gifted with genuine joy-bringers in my life. They are people who have encouraged me not to take myself so darn seriously and have helped me learn to find and to practice joy, even in the difficult times. They are friends who make me smile when they come through the door, when their name appears on my iPhone screen, or when hear their voice. They are like the angels who told the shepherds, “I bring you good news of great joy .” (Lk 2:10)

In the liturgical tradition of the church, the 3rd Sunday in Advent is called Gaudate, the Latin imperative command, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice!” (Phil 4:4) The scripture readings for the day focused on joy. The pink candle in the Advent wreath doesn’t do or say anything; just being there is witness of joy among the more serious purple candles of Advent. It’s the light of joy that shines in the darkness. (Jn 1:5)

Two of my joy-bringers are long-time friends on opposite sides of the country who are going through very difficult times. One is beginning treatment for cancer. The other is sitting in the ICU where his wife is recovering very slowly from a cardiac crisis that could have taken her life. Our phone calls and emails have named the anxiety, concern, and downright fear they are confronting. There are no “visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads.” And yet, in every conversation, we feel their deep, relentless joy. Laughter often surprises us by breaking through when we least expect it.

Biblical joy is not a giddy denial of the circumstances. It is relentless joy that sustains us in the circumstances. That is, in fact, what we read this week. “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances.” (1 These 5:16) It’s the kind of joy Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dali Lama described in The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World, a great book which I’ve reread and recommended. It is rooted in the Psalm for the day that promises,

Those who sowed with tears
will reap with songs of joy.
Those who go out weeping, carrying the seed,
will come again with joy, shouldering their sheaves. (Ps 126:6-7)

Becoming A Joy-Bringer

What if I got it wrong? What if real joy is not passed on by genetic inheritance or forced like a “grudging smile”? What if real joy is always something that someone else brings to us the way those angels brought good news of great joy to the shepherds? What if the joy that ultimately sustains us through hard times comes to us as a surprising gift, the way Gabriel brought it to Mary and Mary brought it to Elizabeth, so that when Elizabeth heard Mary’s voice, the baby within her womb leaped for joy?

In that case, the real question becomes: How can I become a joy-bringer to someone else?  How can I become a witness to the light like that pink candle in the wreath? How may we join the angels in becoming the bringers of great joy to others?

Perhaps gift the world most needs in these dark, painful, conflicted, warring days is the gift of joy which we can bring.

Bring on the joy-bringers!

Jim