The Face of Mercy / Daniel Conway

Gospel joy inspires passion for Jesus and his people

Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation, “Evangelii Gaudium” (“The Joy of the Gospel”) is an inspiring—and challenging—reflection on the evangelizing mission of the Church.

It is inspiring because it draws us out of the “gray pragmatism of the daily life of the Church” into “the original freshness of the Gospel, finding new avenues and new paths of creativity, without enclosing Jesus in our “dull categories.”

But the pope’s exhortation is also challenging. It criticizes Christians who serve their own needs instead of the needs of others—especially the poor and vulnerable. And it tells us quite bluntly that we will never find true happiness unless we set aside our own interests and desires and work for the good of others.

There is a need for a “pastoral and missionary conversion,” the pope says, “which cannot leave things as they presently are.” We also must effect “a renewal of ecclesiastical structures to enable them to become more mission-oriented” and less concerned with preserving the status quo. Pope Francis includes the papacy in his call for a renewal or conversion of Church structures to help make the pope’s ministry “more faithful to the meaning which Jesus Christ wished to give it and to the present needs of evangelization.”

What does all this have to do with joy?

Pope Francis sees joy as the opposite of self-centeredness. He says, quoting Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later

Pope Benedict XVI, that the temptations which affect Christians frequently include individualism, a crisis of identity and a cooling of fervor, with the greatest threat of all being “the gray pragmatism of the daily life of the Church, in which all appears to proceed normally, which in reality faith is wearing down.”

The Holy Father warns against “defeatism,” urging Christians to be signs of hope, bringing about a “revolution of tenderness.” He tells us that it is necessary to seek refuge from the “spirituality of well-being … detached from responsibility for our brothers and sisters,” and to vanquish the “spiritual worldliness that consists of seeking not the Lord’s glory but human glory and well-being.”

Joy is not the result of satisfying our human needs or desires. It comes from carrying out God’s will through self-surrender and loving service of our brothers and sisters, especially those who are most in need of our help.

Gospel joy is found in “spirit-filled evangelizers, those who are

fearlessly open to the working of the Holy Spirit and who have the courage to proclaim the newness of the Gospel with boldness (parrhesía) in every time and place, even when it meets with opposition.” Joy is experienced by “evangelizers who pray and work in the knowledge that their mission is at once a passion for Jesus and a passion for his people.”

Pope Francis has no tolerance for Church leaders who “feel superior to others because they remain intransigently faithful to a particular Catholic style from the past whereby instead of evangelizing, one analyzes and classifies others.”

He is also critical of those Churchmen who have “an ostentatious preoccupation for the liturgy, for doctrine and for the Church’s prestige, but without any concern that the Gospel have a real impact on the needs of the people.” The pope calls this “a tremendous corruption disguised as a good.” And he exclaims, “God save us from a worldly Church with superficial spiritual and pastoral trappings!”

In “The Joy of the Gospel,” Pope Francis urges care for the weakest members of society: “the homeless, the addicted, migrants and refugees, indigenous peoples, and the elderly who are increasingly isolated and abandoned.”

He speaks about the victims of trafficking and new forms of slavery. “Doubly poor are those women who endure situations of exclusion, mistreatment and violence,” the pope says. “Among the vulnerable for whom the Church wishes to care with particular love and concern are unborn children, the most defenseless and innocent among us.”

He continues, “The Church cannot be expected to change her position on this question. … It is not ‘progressive’ to try to resolve problems by eliminating a human life.” Similarly, the pope makes an appeal for respect for all creation saying, “We are called to watch over and protect the fragile world in which we live.”

Gospel joy comes from caring for one another—especially the most vulnerable—and caring for our common home. It inspires in us passion for Jesus and for his people, and it makes us alive in Christ and dead to selfishness and sin.

May our Blessed Mother Mary, who we celebrate in a special way this month, intercede for us in the search for Gospel joy. May she show us the way to her son, Jesus, the source of all our joy!
 

(Daniel Conway is a member of The Criterion’s editorial committee.) †