THE
LIVING
WORD
Reading Scripture from the Heart of the Church
Three Reasons for Christian Joy
I
Dr. Mary Healy
n calling the whole Church to bear witness
to “The Joy of the Gospel,” Pope Francis is
calling us to the kind of evangelization that
typified the apostolic Church. If there was one
quality that characterized the witness of the
early Christians, it was joy. In the Gospels and
the Acts of the Apostles we find three motives
for this evangelistic joy.
First, there is joy at the repentance of
sinners. Jesus taught that the conversion of a
single person who had been lost is an event so
spectacular that heaven itself—the place that
already enjoys unimaginable bliss—rejoices
over it. He told those who complained of his
fellowship with sinners, “There will be more joy
in heaven over one sinner who repents than
over ninety-nine righteous people who have
no need of repentance” (Lk15:7). No one exults
more than God himself, as memorably portrayed
in the father
who celebrates
his prodigal
son’s return
with kisses, and
who exhorts
the disgruntled
older brother,
“Now we must
celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was
dead and has come to life again; he was lost and
has been found” (Lk15:32).
The early Christians exemplified Christ’s
attitude toward repentant sinners. After Paul
and Barnabas’s first missionary journey, when
many Gentiles were converted, they traveled
to Jerusalem, telling every local church on the
way about the results of their mission, which
“brought great joy to all the brothers” (Acts
15:3). The new converts themselves experience
the joy. After being evangelized and baptized
by Philip, the Ethiopian eunuch “went on his
way rejoicing” (Acts 8:39).
Second, there is joy at the wonders that
accompany the proclamation of the good news,
demonstrating God’s love and the presence of
the kingdom. Joy, gladness, and amazement
constantly attended Jesus’ public ministry. After
he healed a crippled woman, “The whole crowd
rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him”
(Lk 13:17). The elation came to a crescendo at
his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, when “the
whole multitude of his disciples began to praise
God aloud with joy for all the mighty deeds
they had seen” (Lk 19:37).
Again, this quality of Jesus’ mission
continued in his disciples. When Peter and
John healed a crippled man by the temple
gate, he reacted with delirious joy: “He leaped
up, stood, and walked around, and went into
the temple with them, walking and jumping
and praising God” (Acts 3:8-9). Philip’s
evangelization in Samaria likewise caused an
explosion of joy: “Unclean spirits . . . came out
of many possessed people. . . . There was great
joy in that city” (Acts 8:7-8).
Finally, the most striking reason for
evangelistic
joy—and that
which most
confounds the
world—is joy
at persecution
for the sake
(Lk 15:7)
of the gospel.
Jesus taught his
disciples not only to endure persecution but
to rejoice in it greatly: “Blessed are you when
people hate you, and when they exclude and
insult you, and denounce your name as evil on
account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for
joy on that day!” (Lk 6:22-23).
The apostles carried out this instruction
faithfully. When they were flogged by the Jewish
leaders, “They left the presence of the Sanhedrin,
rejoicing that they had been found worthy to
suffer dishonor for the sake of the name” (Acts
5:41). Paul and Silas, savagely beaten and chained
up in prison, prayed and sang hymns as the
prisoners listened (Acts 16:25).
Reflecting on these Scriptures can lead us
to ask: Is our evangelization today marked by
contagious joy at the conversion of sinners, at
God’s mighty deeds, and even at persecution
for the sake of Christ?
“There will be more joy in heaven over
one sinner who repents than over
ninety-nine righteous people who have no
need of repentance.”
Dr. Mary Healy is
associate professor of
Sacred Scripture at
Sacred Heart.
36
MOSAIC