Cheerfulness

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

There was a missionary in China many years ago who was trying to evangelize the daughter of a prominent lawyer. The lawyer was not very happy, and so he threw him out of the house and told him not to come back again, never to have any more contact with his daughter.

But then the 14-year-old daughter contracted tuberculosis, and she died.

This missionary went to the wake. At the wake, this lawyer came to him and said, “I want to thank you.”

But the missionary said, "For what?” And he said, "For what you did for my daughter.”

The missionary said, "I didn't do anything for her.”

The lawyer said, “Yes, you did. Look at her smile as she lies in that coffin. She knew that her death was not the end. She knew that she was loved by Love.”

Our Lord has told us, "These things I have spoken to you, so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be fulfilled” (John 15:11).

One of the things Our Lord wants us to have always in our hearts is joy and cheerfulness. Joy is one of the most infallible signs of God's presence.

Our cheerfulness should be something permanent, because our divine filiation—the fact that we are children of God, the source of our joy—is a permanent state as long as we are in the state of grace.

Joy is the fruit and mark of charity. To be with Christ was, and is always, a source of joy.

If ever we lose our joy and our cheerfulness, we can go back to the Blessed Sacrament, to Our Lord in the tabernacle, and recover our joy.

In many places in Scripture, Our Lord encourages our joy: "Be still and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10).

Bring me all your concerns and worries. “Let not your hearts be troubled” (John 14:27).

The Psalm says, "Delight in the Lord and He will give you the request of your heart” (Ps. 37:4).

“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man, having found it, he hides it, and for joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Matt. 13:44).

“Rejoice in the Lord always,” says St. Paul. “Again, I say, rejoice” (Phil. 4:4).

God wants our cheerfulness to be something constant.

It might seem that the challenges, the difficulties, the failures of life may take away our joy a little, but if we try to love the cross a little more each day, we will be more joyful people.

One way to restore our joy and cheerfulness, if ever we've lost it, is to make an act of thanksgiving.

Thank you, Lord, for this difficulty, or this challenge, or this pain, or this cross, because I know that your loving hand is behind this. Some good is going to come out of this.

It's impossible to be grateful and to be unhappy. By being more grateful, we become happier because we see the hand of God working in our lives, and we allow ourselves to be more abandoned in the hands of Our Father God.

When we try to take our spiritual life more seriously, we should enjoy life because we're closer to the source of all joy. True virtue is pleasantly joyful.

That God is joy is mentioned something like 300 times in Scripture. The number of times something is mentioned in Scripture is usually a sign of its significance and importance.

When we're cheerful, it's usually a good sign of our self-surrender—that I'm accepting the will of God and all the little things that come to me. I'm living in His presence. I'm referring things to Him.

Usually, it means I'm thinking of others. Our joy comes from thinking of others. We solve all our problems by thinking about others, forgetting all about ourselves.

If you look at the writings of St. Josemaría—The Way, The Forge, Furrow—very often you'll find those two simple words written there frequently: “forget yourself.” There's great wisdom in those words.

We go to the Sacred Heart of Christ, we're told in the Preface of the Sacred Heart, “to draw water in joy from the wells of salvation” (Isa. 12:3).

There's a bottomless pit there of joy from which we can draw fruit. It's one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit in our soul. “The fruit of the Spirit,” says St. Paul to the Galatians, “is charity, joy, peace, patience, goodness, longanimity” (Gal. 5:22).

“When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord took away Philip, and the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing” (Acts 8:39).

“Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you” (Matt. 5:12).

“Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matt. 5:4).

“The angels said to the shepherds, ‘We bring you good tidings of great joy’” (Luke 2:10).

We are the recipients of this great joy. It's something we have to try and know a lot about and transmit to many other people.

Confucius has a saying where he says, “When you drink water, you should remember the source.” It’s interesting how pagan philosophers can bring us back to these basic ideas. “When you drink water, remember the source.” Remember where it came from.

Every day of our life, as we look at the little blessings that God gives us, from moment to moment, thank Him for the fact that our left elbow doesn't pain us today, or that we're able to walk, or write, or see, or hear, and all the things we take for granted a million times. This can fill us with great joy.

God wants our joy to be constant and heroic, not allowing anything to undermine it.

We're told in the Gospel that occasionally Our Lord was sad (John 11:32-36; Luke 7:11-15). He was sad, but He wasn't dominated by sadness. It was a passing thing.

Sometimes we might be sad at the loss of a loved one, the loss of a child, failing an exam, or some piece of news that may be heart-rending, but very quickly we can recover our joy and our cheerfulness because we see the hand of God in that moment.

Or there might be sad moments when we have to say goodbye to a loved one, or the wedding of a child, or the death of a child. But again, joy can be present side by side with that sadness. The sadness of knowing that that child is going on his way, the way that God has called him, or that that child is now in heaven with Our loving Father.

Looking at ourselves, we have little reason to be happy. But looking at God and the gifts that He has given to us, we have many reasons.

Our joy and cheerfulness are not a function of circumstances, or how we slept last night. It's built rather on our faith, on our hope.

Sometimes we might have failed. We have a joy at beginning again. We live in the land of beginning again, trying over.

There was an Olympic athlete once at the Olympics, I think it was in Barcelona, many years ago. They were advertising that this Olympics is being beamed into a billion homes all over the world.

This gymnast came running up the carpet, jumped off the springboard, went into a somersault, and was supposed to land for a perfect score of 10, but something went horribly wrong in midair, and she landed way off the carpet, very awkwardly, in front of the television cameras.

If we make a major mistake, we'd probably prefer that it wasn't beamed into a billion homes.

But it seems you're allowed two or three goes on this type of activity, and so she went back and she had another go. This time it went perfectly. She did a perfect somersault and she landed for a perfect score of 10.

She didn't run off into the wings and break into tears and say, "I can never appear in public again.” She went back and tried again.

God wants us to have a sporting spirit in our life, to joyfully have another go, because we know that God is waiting for us.

St. Josemaría liked to say that we have to be like the prodigal son many times every day (Josemaría Escrivá, Christ Is Passing By, Point 64).

“When he came to himself, he realized how many hired men in his father's house have bread in abundance. He got up and went to his father: ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son’” (cf. Luke 15:17-19).

It’s a beautiful parable. He goes back in joy and he begins again in joy. He gets reinstated into the situation of his original dignity.

We come back to Our Father God. The Sacrament of Confession is a sacrament of joy.

Bishop Javier Echevarría used to tell a story of a lady who went into a public church to go to Confession. This lady was a bit deaf. She went into the confessional box and she made her Confession. But then there was no reply from the other side of the box.

After a while, she realized that there was no priest there. She came out of the confessional box sort of chuckling to herself: ‘What a silly billy I am. I must be getting really deaf. What a stupid thing to do.’

The following day, a young girl came to her, said, “I want to thank you because I came into this church yesterday. I was trying to summon up enough courage to go to Confession, and I was very nervous and finding it very difficult. Then I saw you coming out of the confessional box with that smile on your face. That was the last push that I needed to make a decision to go to Confession. So I want to thank you.”

Bishop Javier Echevarría used to say that God makes use of all circumstances. He makes use of our joy and truthfulness to encourage others in their spiritual life.

The source of our joy and cheerfulness is not in human things. Created things are powerless to satisfy our hunger for happiness. Our joy and cheerfulness can't just depend on the football results or other passing joys that may come—superficial things.

Our deep joy has to come from supernatural things: from truth, beauty, and love; from a reminder that God is love and He is present in my life and acting very much.

Joy is one of nature's great medicines. It's always healthy.

We have to try and bring joy into our home. St. Josemaría talked about “bright and cheerful homes” (J. Escrivá, Christ Is Passing By, Point 78).

Often we have to be the first person to bring that cheerfulness: a joy that comes from serving God; from giving ourselves; from thanking God for the consolations that He gives us, and the fact that He continues to be my Father.

Chesterton used to say that cheerfulness is a highly civilized product.

Pope Benedict, speaking to young people at one of the UNIV sessions in Rome, said: “Never forget, dear young people, that your happiness, our happiness, depends, in the end, on the encounter and friendship with Jesus” (Address to Participants, April 2006).

Pope St. John Paul II said cheerfulness and holiness are the inevitable result of getting closer to God.

It's impossible to be genuinely cheerful if we don't pray, if we don't turn our life into a constant dialogue with God.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta used to say: Never be so down “as to forget the joy of the risen Christ” (Malcolm Muggeridge, Something Beautiful for God).

There's a church in Singapore called the Church of the Risen Christ. I was always impressed by that title: the Risen Christ. The joy of Easter. Hope. Optimism.

Christ has conquered the devil, conquered death, conquered sin. Therefore we have all sorts of reasons to be joyful and optimistic, to look to the future. “A smile is a light in the window of your face that tells others that your heart is at home.”

We could ask God for the grace to make resolutions to have a lot of joy because we are with God. St. Josemaría used to say that joy and happiness have their roots in the form of a cross (cf. J. Escrivá, The Forge, Point 28).

When we try to run away from the cross in our life, we don't find happiness.

I was giving a retreat many years ago in another country. A man came to church and I knew he had a number of health problems. I asked him, "How are you now?” He said, "Father, I've come to realize that happiness does not consist in doing things that are easy.”

I was very impressed with the wisdom of those words. Very often we look for happiness in the easy things, with more sleep, or watching a movie, or something.

But very often our greatest happiness is in solving the problems, in facing the challenges, in fulfilling our duty, in being there for other people, in solving other people's problems.

Often, for that joy and cheerfulness to be present, we need a sense of sacrifice. "Greater love than this no man has, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

Christ has told us that joy is sacrifice.

Chesterton liked to say that one of the aspects that's missing in all the accounts of the cross is the joy of Christ on the Cross. “It is accomplished” (John 19:30). Happiness that everything is finished; it's done.

When we lie down in bed at night and the day is over and the work is done and the children are in bed, we could reiterate those words of Our Lord: "It is accomplished.”

This day that you have given me—to work, to expend myself, to offer you the little things of each day—is now accomplished. I offer this to you in joy. I thank you for it.

Our Lord wants us in the world, in our homes, among our colleagues, to be “sowers of peace and joy” (J. Escrivá, Furrow, Point 59).

It's a beautiful phrase. It means that we always try and have something positive to say. We lift up conversations. We bring a piece of news to certain gatherings. We try and see the bright side of certain situations.

“Serve the Lord with gladness" (Ps. 100:2).

There's a story told of St. Teresa of Ávila that one day she was getting out of her carriage and she slipped on the bottom step and she fell flat in the muck.

In those days there were natural roads, it had been raining, and so there were a lot of puddles and muck and dirt. She fell flat on her face in this and she was wearing a new habit.

It was said that before she lifted herself up out of this incongruous situation, she looked up to heaven and said: Lord, it's no wonder you have so few friends in this world when this is the way that you treat them.

She knew how to laugh. She knew how to laugh at herself, at her situation. Somebody said once that people who know how to laugh—it's a sign they're close to God, because God has a great sense of humor.

He's always laughing and digging us in the ribs and saying, ‘Come on, take yourself a little less seriously. Allow me to play this little practical joke on you.’

When you can't find your keys, or you can't find your glasses, or you can't remember what you came into this room to look for, you can't remember where you were going—laughter is like God's sunshine.

We try to bring that laughter wherever we are, wherever we go. That cheerfulness has to be something that's always present.

If ever it's missing, we shouldn't wait to let it come back by itself. We've got to recover it by fostering it, reminding ourselves: I'm a child of God, and therefore nothing can go wrong.

“All things turn out for the good for those who love God” (Rom. 8:28).

Even in this apparent failure or this apparent catastrophe, God is working. There's something positive here.

“My chosen ones do not work in vain” (Isa. 65:23). The Blessed Trinity will bring fruits to all of our efforts.

If, maybe, some child has disappointed us with their behavior or academically or in some way, we know that the seeds we have tried to sow someday will yield their abundant fruit. Nothing is ever lost.

Great confidence in God can be there. Great optimism.

Cheerfulness can be like the motor oil that makes human interaction run smoothly. It’s particularly relevant at home and also at work. We try and be people who have a smile for everybody in the workplace, or a word of encouragement.

There may be people we meet or pass every day in the street—possibly they need our smile. We might not be very close to them. We might not need to engage them in conversation, but we do need to smile. Have a cheerful smile for everybody we meet. It lifts everybody up.

St. Teresa of Ávila says, "Let nothing disturb you, Let nothing frighten you. All things pass. God does not change. Patience achieves everything. Whoever has God lacks nothing. God alone suffices.”

“God has no body now on earth but yours. No hands but yours. No feet but yours. You are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ must look out on the world. Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good. You are the hands with which He is to bless His people” (attributed to St. Teresa of Ávila).

St. Josemaría says in The Forge, Point 699, “Your charity should be likable. Without neglecting prudence or naturalness, try to have a smile on your lips for everyone at all times, even though you may be weeping inside. The service you give to others should be unstinting too.”

A smile on our face might be the only thing that other people may ever see of us. That external gesture may be a light in their life that leads them to see the truth, beauty, and love that we carry in our heart. It can be very apostolic, especially at a difficult moment.

“The first step towards bringing others to the ways of Christ,” St. Josemaría says in The Forge, Point 858, “is for them to see you happy and serene, sure in your advance towards God.”

There are no situations that need to take us away from that cheerfulness.

There was a group of guys once who were going to go rock climbing. One guy was not much of a rock climber, but he went along with his friends. They were climbing this rock face with ropes and all sorts of things.

Halfway up the rock face, he decided to hang free for a moment and admire the view. But as he was hanging free, one of the ropes hit against his left eye and knocked out his contact lens.

Now he couldn't see very clearly. The view was sort of blurred.

He reached around and felt around on his jacket and see if he could find the contact lens, but he wasn't successful. The only thing he could do was to keep on climbing.

Up on the top of the rock face was one of his friends. When he got there, he asked him to look around in his rucksack and his jacket and see if he could find his contact lens. But he couldn't find the lens.

Then he remembered a phrase from Scripture that said, “Lord, your eyes are over all the earth” (cf. 2 Chron. 16:9).

So he prayed and said, “Lord, your eyes are over all the earth. You can see my contact lens. Help me to find my lens." But they couldn't find the lens.

They came down the mountain and there was another group that was beginning to climb the rock face. One of them yelled over and said, "Hey, did anyone lose their contact lens?”

They were very surprised because it's difficult to find a contact lens when you're looking for it. But if you're not even looking for it, it's almost impossible.

They asked them, "How did you find the lens?”

They said, "There was this ant that was crawling over the surface of the rock and the ant was carrying the lens. And because the ant was moving, the lens was moving and we were able to see the lens."

They thought there must be about a one-in-a-million chance of something like that happening.

When the guy got home, he told his father the story. His father was a professional cartoonist.

The father was inspired by the story, so he drew a cartoon of an ant carrying a contact lens. The caption under the cartoon said, “Lord, why am I carrying this thing? I can't eat it. I can't use it. It's no good to me. It's awfully heavy. But if you want me to carry it, OK, I'll carry it.”

With that, he was expressing the sentiments that we might have in all sorts of moments when we feel we're carrying a heavy burden.

When Our Lady went to Bethlehem, she found rejection (Luke 2:7). But even because of that, or even due to that, or in that situation, she was calm. There wasn't a word of irritation or annoyance.

She calmly and cheerfully accepted the will of God in the way that it came to her.

We can ask Our Lady to help us to accept that will of God cheerfully in all the little ways that it comes to us every day.

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

JM