Rejoice Always! Really?

This seems to be impossible. St. Paul tells us:

“Rejoice always, pray continually, in all things give thanks.” (1 Thess 5:16-18).

No Joy In Pain & Suffering

Who rejoices when her child is injured? Who rejoices when he loses his job? Who rejoices when she is lying in pain, dying? Who rejoices at a broken body, broken family, broken community, broken nation, broken world, broken Church? In so many circumstances how could rejoicing be possible? “Rejoice always” is, without more, indeed is a hard saying.

St. John Chrystostom

St. John Chrystostom (Archbishop of Constantinople, 349-407 A.D.) wrote about this in a sermon far more eloquent than the words of this article:

“You have today heard from Paul, who exhorts us, saying, Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice. I know indeed that to many this saying seems impossible. For how is it possible, says some one, that he who is but a man, can continually rejoice? To rejoice is no hard matter, but to rejoice continually, this seems to me to be impossible .For many are the causes of sadness, which surround us on all sides. A man has lost either a son, or a wife, or a beloved friend, more necessary to him than all kindred; or he has to sustain the loss of wealth; or he has fallen into sickness; or he has to bear some other change of fortune; or to grieve for contemptuous treatment which he did not deserve; or famine, or pestilence, or some intolerable exaction, or circumstances in his family trouble him—nay, there is no saying how many circumstances of a public or private nature are accustomed to occasion us grief. How then, he may say, is it possible to rejoice always? Homily XVIII, “Concerning The Statues,” Chrysostom, First Series, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, ed. P. Schaff, trans. Stephens, 1889, page 459. 

In The Lord

The excerpt from St. Paul’s Letter to the Thessalonians, quoted above, is, however, only an excerpt. Here is the full context of St. Paul’s command to rejoice, from both the first epistle to the Thessalonians and from the epistle to the Philippians, the “rest of the story”:

“ Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice.” (Phil 4:4)

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thess 5:16-18)

The key is that, if a Catholic’s spirit is “in the Lord” with a will in accord with “the will of God in Christ Jesus,” then it is possible to rejoice in all circumstances.

St. Paul – In The Lord

St. Paul not only preached this, he lived it. As he was writing his letter to the Catholics of Phillipi (a town in Greece that he had traveled to before), ordering them to rejoice, he was in prison, possibly in the company of no other Catholic. Yet this epistle has been called the “letter of joy” because it overflows throughout with exuberant joy. In the terms of the material world alone, St. Paul sounds insane, a raving maniacally happy lunatic; but he knows he has his “citizenship in Heaven” and so he can expect his “savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Phil 3:20). This is how he is “in the Lord.”

Those early Catholics who first read his words knew St. Paul was in prison. They knew he was not only talking the talk of the gospels, he was walking the walk. Despite being in prison, and in important ways because of it and his other sufferings, St. Paul’s words rang true in a most convincing way. This is why the joyful witness of the martyrs was the ultimate way to evangelize. There is report after report from the first centuries of the Church of pagans witnessing the torture and deaths of the martyrs and, sometimes on the spot, becoming Catholic.

St. Felix and St. Adauctus

In 304 A.D., during the persecution of Catholics in the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian, Felix, a good Catholic, was captured, tortured, and condemned to be beheaded (Yes, today history repeats itself) because, even after the torture, he refused to renounce Jesus. He even seemed happy as he was led to the execution site. In the crowd assembled to watch the beheading was a person, still now unknown, who was so impressed by the joy and faith of Felix that he cried out: “I too follow and believe the same commandments that this man confesses. I too follow and believe in the same Jesus Christ. And I too will give away my life to further his cause.” Immediately, this man was taken by the soldiers and beheaded with Felix. The unknown man became known as “Adauctus,” which means “the additional one.”

St. Ignatius of Antioch

One notable joyful martyr was St. Ignatius of Antioch. Tradition tells us that when Jesus brought a “child” before His audience, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven,” (Mt 18: 2,3), the child was this St. Ignatius. After he had been arrested by the Emperor’s soldiers, he wrote a famous letter to his flock, begging them not to try to rescue him. He did not want them to deny him the joy of martyrdom:

“ May I enjoy the wild beasts that are prepared for me; and I pray they may be found eager to rush upon me, which also I will entice to devour me speedily . . . But if they be unwilling to assail me, I will compel them to do so. . . .. Now I begin to be a disciple. And let no one, of things visible or invisible, envy me that I should attain to Jesus Christ. Let fire and the cross; let the crowds of wild beasts; let tearings, breakings, and dislocations of bones; let cutting off of members; let shatterings of the whole body; and let all the dreadful torments of the devil come upon me: only let me attain to Jesus Christ.” Ignatius, Chap. 5, Epistle To The Romans. 

How Can One Rejoice Today? The Principle

Sounds good – Rejoice in the Lord always. Many saints and martyrs have given us examples of their rejoicing. However, day in and day out our flesh is not torn by the teeth of lions and our bones are not crunched between their jaws; so how do we do this today, here and now, especially when we hurt or when we are suffering?
This rejoicing is only possible if one believes in and hopes in a life to come. If all there is is the here and now, then there is no reason to rejoice about pain and suffering here and now. To rejoice in the Lord is not to rejoice in the things of this world. This rejoicing, this by-the-world-standards insane rejoicing, can only be done here on earth “in the Lord” if we are focused on eternity. It is this “eternity” that makes “always” rejoicing make sense. St. John Marie Vianney summed it up:

“The eyes of the world see no further than this life, but the eyes of the Christian see deep into eternity.”

This rejoicing in the Lord also requires that we hear St. Paul, again in his “letter of joy,” when he says: “For to me life is Christ, and death is gain.” (Phil 1:21).

In the words of St. Irenaeus:

“The business of the Christian is nothing else than to be ever preparing for death.” (No. XI, “Fragments From The Lost Writings Of Irenaeus, Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. Roberts et al, Vol. 1, page 570, 1884).

How Can One Rejoice Today? The Practice

Assume that there are many things about which you do not now and have never rejoiced. How do you actually do it?
In talking about how one becomes virtuous, how one comes to habitually do individual acts of virtue, Aristotle says, paradoxically, one learns how to do something that one does not know how to do by doing it; and this is the same with virtue:

“ . . .the virtues we get by first exercising them . . . For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them, e.g. men become builders by building and lyre players by playing the lyre; so too we become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts ,brave by doing brave acts.” (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Ross, Oxford University Press, 1925 pp. 28-29 in the 1985 edition).

So it is with learning how to rejoice always.

Simply do it, even if you think you do not know how to do it, literally “go through the motions,” say the words, “God, I rejoice in this ___________,” fill in the blank, “and I thank You.” For example, when you hit your thumb with a hammer; when a good friend hurts your feelings with unkind words; when you get cut off in traffic; when your feel a twinge of arthritis pain in your wrist; when you bounce a check; when you get to the store after it closes; when you are not invited to a party; when you get turned down for a newe job; when your run out of gas; and when men insult and hate you. Also, do not forget to rejoice often in the good things of this created world, things full of God’s glory. Rejoice in the next cloud you see and the next bird’s song you hear; and rejoice in each person made in His image that God puts in your life each day.

If you are losing hope; if you are despairing at what is being done daily by the “world rulers of this present darkness;” if you are in pain, especially if it seems unbearable; from your perceived personal prison read St. Paul’s Letter Of Joy to the Philippians, and you will be freed, rejuvenated and refreshed.

Never forget, Jesus tells each of us: “I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice.” (Jn 16:22).