Joy to the World

Last Sunday was the third Sunday in Advent, also known as Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete is Latin for ‘rejoice’ and the third candle is the pink/rose coloured one (the other three are red).  But why pink?  One source I consulted notes, “Long ago the Pope would honor a citizen with a pink rose (or a rose rose?) Priests then would wear pink vestments as a reminder of this coming joy.”

I have, in the past, pondered the difference between joy and happiness and I don’t think I have a complete handle on the difference.  As far as I can determine, happiness is a reaction to specific events and joy is a state of being.  When we sing the carol “Joy to the World the Lord is come,” it means that we are declaring that the world is in a state of joy as the Prince of Peace is born.  However, he is not the Prince of Joy as that is the state we experience when peace reigns in the world. 

In any case. I have been, not surprisingly, encountering joy in many things I have read in the last few days.   The Advent reflection for December 17^th which I receive in my inbox notes that we have the anticipation of joy when we consider the birth of the Christ child:

As we move toward the manger, we sing with great gladness. The song is ancient, sung by the heavenly host and repeated by the shepherds as they traveled to see the Christ child. Glory to God in the highest. O come let us adore Him. The song carries the weight of the hope of believers through the ages. It is a song of expectation, of anticipation, of joy and wonder.

In another case, I was drawn to reading The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri Nouwen which explores the painting by Rembrandt of the parable.  The painting came up in my session with my Spiritual Director.  Nouwen notes that the joy experienced on the return of the prodigal son was driven out by the resentment felt by the older brother:

But this shout of joy cannot be received.  Instead of relief and gratitude, the servant’s joy summons up the opposite: “He was angry then and refused to go in.”  Joy and resentment cannot coexist.  The music and dancing, instead of inviting joy, became a cause for even greater withdrawal. 

Nouwen notes that he had experienced a similar reaction as that of the older brother:

But my anger was so great at not being told about the party that I couldn’t stay.  All of my inner complaints about not being accepted, liked, and love surged up in me, and I left the room, slammed the door behind me.  I was completely incapacitated―unable to receive and participate in the joy that was there.  In an instance, the joy in that room had become a sense of resentment.

 So, other than giving up the comfortable feeling of resentment, how do we achieve joy?  One clue was in the prayers of the people on Sunday.  In the prayers we give thanks for many things; for being called to be the people of God, for the community of faith throughout the world, the privileged of ministering to others, and for the countless gifts of God we have received.  Giving thanks to God in all things. This will go a long way to experiencing joy. 

Nouwen notes that it can be a choice, “Every moment of each day I have the chance to choose between cynicism and joy.  Every thought I have can be cynical or joyful.  Every word I speak can be cynical or joyful.”  I believe that this is a great part of a joyful life.  However, in no way is it easy and should not be made to seem so.  I do not have a natural inclination to joy.  That is part of who I am.  I think many people are not naturally joyful and it does take a conscious effort to cultivate joy in one’s life.  Giving thanks to God in (not for but in) all things is the way to approach it, even if it doesn’t seem to come naturally to many of us.  Thanks be to God. 

Blessings on you journey and may your experience be one of joy. 

Achieving Disagreement

Last Sunday was the second Sunday of Advent.  We lit the candle for peace.  Perhaps this was done with a something of futility and perhaps despair.  As the carol says:

And in despair I bowed my head
There is no peace on earth I said
For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men

(I heard the Bells on Christmas Day)

I believe that we can be excused from falling into despair (the opposite of Hope which is the first Advent candle.  We have examples of totalitarian governments springing up in countries that are democracies. Perhaps springing up is the wrong word―infecting would be better.  The Brexit foolishness is slouching towards its inexorable uncertain conclusion.  Our American neighbours seem also to be inexorably split into two divides separated by an ever-widening chasm between red and blue.  Signs of peace seem to be few and far between even as we prepare for the birth of the Prince of Peace.

I was reading an article in the New York Times, After Bush, Obituary Wars, by Frank Bruni which addressed the reaction to the eulogizing of George H. W. Bush.  commentator on the left were scathing in their reaction to uncritical assessment of his life that was put forward by many.  As Bruni said, there was much to criticize in a man who “leaned on the despicable Willie Horton ad, who nominated Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, who did little in the face of AIDS.”  However, there was much to eulogize in a man who was basically a good and honourable man.  As the column noted, we have the need to see our villains without redemption and our heroes without blemish.  It is comfortable to see things in black and white.  We don’t have to make the effort to deal with the subtleties of the grays in the world.  Our prejudices are affirmed and confirmed. 

One way to address this was presented in an On Being program, The Future of Marriage https://onbeing.org/programs/david-blankenhorn-and-jonathan-rauch-the-future-of-marriage/ .  The program was a discussion by two men who have been on opposite side of the same-sex marriage debate.  It is not my desire to get into this mine field (at least at this time).  What I want to uphold is the approach that they used in discussing this rather fraught issue for different perspectives.  They proposed that what people would aim for when they are on opposite sides of an issue is “achieving disagreement”.   The goal is not to come to a point where both parties come to the same position.  Rather it is to understand and accept that people can have different positions which can still allow us to respect the other party.  As they note, “being right is not as important as making a pact with my fellow Americans on the other side so that we can live together.”

Living together perhaps does not seem like a high ideal to aim for, especially at this time of year.  However, if we can learn to live with one another and accept each other as human beings, worthy of respect we will have achieved a great deal.  From a Christian perspective it is seeing each other as Children of God and we can begin to strive for peace on earth and goodwill to all.

The carol does not end in despair.  Rather, it ends in hope; hope for peace on earth:

Then rang the bells more loud and deep
God is not dead, nor does he sleep
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men

Blessings on your journey.  

Is That All There Is?

Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent.  We lit the first Advent candle for Hope.  I am wondering this what exactly is hope?  Is it something that people hang on to when all else fails and there is no other option, or is it an ongoing way of being? 

In our funeral liturgy the Committal includes the reassurance, “in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life.”   So, to live in hope is to live ‘as if’.  We may not have absolute proof but we live in the faith that God is with us.

The opposite of hope is despair.  If we are in despair, we have given up hope that there is more to life than we are experiencing at present.  Does this mean that it is a life which is grinding you down physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually?  It certainly can be any or all of those.  But it can also be a life which seems to have just doesn’t have any more meaning. 

What comes to mind is the is the song ‘Is That All There Is’ sung by the great Peggy Lee.  Listening to the song again on You Tube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCRZZC-DH7M). This seems to be a song of despair.  The chorus suggests that life is without meaning and so embrace wine, women and song:

Is that all there is?
Is that all there is?
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing
Let's break out the booze and have a ball
If that's all there is

No, there is not much hope in that approach to life.  However, in the song the singer asks when her lover leaves her, “is that all there is to love?”   She poignantly suggests that she knows what we, the audience, are thinking, if she believes that is all there is to life, why doesn’t she end it?  Peggy replies that she is going to respond, that she is not ready for that final disappointment:

Cause I know just as well as I'm standing here talking to you
And when that final moment comes and I'm breathing my last breath,
I'll be saying to myself
Is that all there is?
Is that all there is?
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing
Let's break out the booze and have a ball
If that's all there is

Perhaps there is some hope in that approach but it doesn’t seem like it is truly hopeful.  The idea of living life to the fullest because that is all there is seem to me to be a cry of despair as there is nothing else but what we have now and there is the eternal question, ‘is that all there is?’ 

The answer to that question is to live in the sure and certain hope that we have meaning in life that there is more to life than just breaking out the booze and having a ball.  As a Christian I find the ultimate meaning in the eternal presence of Jesus Christ as my Saviour and in the sure and certain hope of new life.  However, I believe that many people can and do find other sources of meaning.  The meaning comes from living in the knowledge that you are not the only thing that matters; in the knowledge that you are not the centre of the universe.  We have the sure and certain hope that we are all more than that and can live in ways that embrace life beyond breaking out the booze and having a ball.   No, that is not all there is. 

Blessings on that journey which we are all taking; the journey of life.