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April 2007 Issue
The joy of the Spirit gently whispers
within us
| Have
you seen on some the TV shows how the emcee or sidekick
of the host spends a few moments with the audience revving
them up before the main attraction comes out? If you’ve
ever been on the live set, you’d see the same
thing even more vividly: the assistant is waving arms
wildly, sometimes out of view of the cameras, to whip
up audience cheering. It’s supposed to convey
to the TV viewing audience the unbounded joy which the
star brings.
This kind of “joy” has a
large dose of fakery to it. It’s all show business.
But in our times we’ve become so used to the “knock-offs”
for joy, that we often don’t know what the real
things is. We’re almost expected to be happy and
joyous in order to be acceptable to others. |
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Look at the old-time photographs of people and
compare them with today’s. Yesteryear’s photos,
especially the really old ones from the 1930s back to the late
1800s, show faces that are usually stern and grim. Of course,
they often had reason to be that way. The times they were living
in were harsh. Work and family life and just staying healthy
were all very demanding. Today’s photo-taking almost always
calls for us to smile. So, we pose, whether we’re feeling
particularly joyous or not.
Christians believe that joy is like a fragrance
left by the Holy Spirit permeating our human spirit. Somehow
by the grace of Jesus, God’s Spirit takes residence
in us. That divine presence leaves us with a wholeness and
contentment that we can’t fabricate. It leaves our hearts
smiling and generous. Even when everything else outside us
seems contrary or even despairing, so that our faces can’t
break into a smile, that joy inside will not go away. It doesn’t
evaporate.
If the fragrance of the Spirit’s joy
could gesture and talk, it would not be waving its arms like
an energetic cheer-leader. It would whisper: All will be well
with the world, for God is at home here.
Msgr. Gaspar F. Ancona is recently retired.
He is the author of Where the Star Came to Rest,
a history of the Diocese of Grand Rapids.
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