Gaudete…and
the Staff Christmas Do! Gaudete…and
the Staff Christmas Do! Gaudete…and the
Staff Christmas Do!

Gaudete…and the Staff Christmas Do!

This weekend (tonight, Friday) it’s the Staff Christmas do…more about that anon!

This coming Sunday is the 3rd Sunday of Advent, sometimes called Gaudete Sunday - ‘Rejoice Sunday.’  The third (pink) candle on the Advent wreath is lit and we pray for joy - a deep-seated gladness not dependent on changing circumstances and even in the face of whatever life throws at us. There was a famous French Jesuit priest-paleontologist-philosopher called Teilhard de Chardin, who had links to Jersey.  He spent a few years here studying at Maison St. Louis, which is now the Hotel de France, and developed as a scientist, studying especially the geology of the island, and as a student for the priesthood.  Teilhard said that joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God.  Eternal joy is what we will be experiencing in Heaven, which is probably why miserable, po-faced, joyless Christians (and any other category of sullen human beings) feel more like a form of Purgatory!

Saint Paul once wrote from a prison cell (probably in Rome) to followers of Jesus in Philippi (North-East Greece), telling them to “Rejoice!”  It is unlikely, given his living arrangements at that time, that he was commanding them to pull themselves together and paint on a smile for the world!  Let’s be honest, life’s not always amusing and we don’t feel particularly happy half the time!  So no, joy cannot be a false smile, something that lights up a face with the flick of an emotional switch.  Joy must be something other than happiness.  Happiness is connected to the 14th-century word hap, meaning chance or luck. Whether we are happy or not is linked to the flux of our lives; joy isn’t. Joy is a virtue, a personal quality born deep within us when, whatever else is going on externally for us, we carry out certain regular, repeated actions that flow from knowing who we are and what we are to do in life. “What must we do?” the soldiers and tax collectors ask John the Baptist in the gospel this Sunday as they gather to listen to him in the desert.  John answers by telling them that they are to live justly, i.e. with a greater love for others, not seeing others as a means to their own ends (bullying them, cheating them in the case of the soldiers and tax collectors, but we can take the principle and apply it in our own situations with regard to “the others” we deal with every day).  Other people have an inherent worth because they exist (that’s what the concept of human rights means). I am meant to spend my life as a gift to be shared with others who possess the same value as me because it is a value granted from outside us.  It follows that life is not just about me, but also those entrusted to me.  Until I realise that, I can never be happy at my deepest levels - never really know joy.

Anyway, as already indicated, tonight is the Beaulieu Christmas do. It’s tempting on such occasions to think, “I’m gonna have a great time even if it kills me! I deserve it after the day, week/half-term/term/year I’ve had!” (Delete/add as appropriate!) We often think that the daily grind of living stops us from enjoying our existence and so we need the release valve of a night out. The duties and pressures that come from life, work, family, relationships, emotional problems, health problems and financial worries can stop us feeling as happy as we would like to - and that’s why we need a night out, we imagine! During “ordinary life” (work!) we don’t enjoy life, and so we need something “extraordinary” (a night out, a holiday) to break the monotony. Yeah, what a great idea - that will bring us a bit of enjoyment, that will put a grin on our faces, that will give us joy! In this way of thinking, joy is identified with painting on a smile (in spite of everything going on). But joy is not the merriment of a night out. Nor is it the sense of relief that comes with the all too temporary freedom we feel on holiday (if we ignore the emails on our phone). Now, please don’t get me wrong, anyone will tell you that I love a night out or a holiday as much as anyone, and I intend to have a fabulous time tonight!  But the robust cheerfulness that people manufacture at parties or on holiday can often be little more than a Canutish attempt to stem the tide of other emotions. That's why our Christmas cheer disappears as quickly as our hangover appears on Saturday morning; that’s why, three days after getting home from a holiday, we are knackered and need a holiday!

So if “I’m gonna have a damn good time!” isn’t joy, what is?  Joy can never be manufactured or forced.  Joy is a virtue, a personal quality that finds us inside our everyday and pressurised lives. This is why one of my favourite authors, C.S. Lewis, called his autobiography Surprised by Joy.  Joy is a gift, a grace, something that catches us unawares. We can't manufacture joy - it has to find us. I won’t be saying on Friday lunchtime, “Tonight I'm going to have a good time, even if it flaming well kills me!”  Letting myself go a bit tonight is not the same thing as joy. Joy is always a surprise, a corollary of something else. St. Francis of Assisi wrote a very famous and wise prayer - its words are found in the hymn “Make me a channel of your peace” (Google it). That prayer implies that we can never attain joy - or consolation, peace, forgiveness, love, and understanding - by actively pursuing these things. We can only get joy (and these other things) as a spin-off, a side effect or a by-product (if Chemistry is more your thing) of giving joy (and these other things) out to other people.

The great paradox at the centre of Christ’s teaching and one of the great foundational truths of life is this: the vibe we give out is the same vibe which, eventually, we get back.  “Misery loves company!” and “Birds of a feather…!” are phrases that bear testimony to this. Similarly, joy will come to us if we set about actively trying to create it for others, if we give our lives away to others.  If I go about life in my family or my workplace demanding (consciously or unconsciously) that life be all about me rather than those around me, if I look to feed off others rather than try to nurture them, if I look to foment disunity and friction rather than build community and harmony, if I demand that others meet my needs rather than try to meet theirs, then guess what?  I will never be joyful, no matter how hard I party, however many holidays I go on, however high I climb or however rich I become.  My fundamental worldview is wrong. The lens through which I am looking at reality is blurred.  That isn’t pie-in-the-sky, unworldly, religious piety or self-help speak - it’s as real, this-world and empirically verifiable as a glance at any healthy or unhealthy relationship, marriage, priesthood, workplace, parish, religious community, country or period of human history. This fundamental attitude to reality also explains why the founding charism of our Sisters is toute de charité.  It’s all about love.  Give it a try and watch life get more joyful.

We made it through to another weekend, Beaulieu! Just four more get-ups! Have a joyful weekend. And a great time tonight, even if it kills you! (#justmessinglike!)