During the school year, I visit the classrooms on a rotating basis, to share something about our faith with each group. After first grade, I usually share a discussion about some item of interest.
With the pre-school and kindergarten, we usually sing. One of their favorites is the chorus: "I've got that joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart..." This song is always a guarantee for enthusiasm.
Joy is also a favorite topic of Pope Francis, which is often included in the title of his addresses and writings. He points out often that Joy comes from a personal encounter with Jesus.
Many of us have used the formula to describe the word: Jesus, others, yourself. Some recent popular devotional movements have picked up on the formula, offering an experience of encounter in the same order, with Jesus, with others and with ourselves.
Joy is not simply a good feeling or a "mountain top experience." It is something more profound and permanent. The calm and lasting gift of joy is described in another hymn with the words, "It is well with my soul."
In recent years, leaders in the Church have called us to a "new evangelization." Though the basic message, that of God's love manifested and shared with us in Christ, is always the same, what is "new" is the special focus on the relational gift of joy.
It begins with an encounter with Jesus. The Bible gives us many examples of how this is a life changing event. Jesus encountered the fishermen, the woman of Samaria, the tax collectors, the lame, the deaf, the blind and the paralyzed. His encounter with the paralyzed man also included the four who carried him. All those who encountered him were changed by the event and brought to a decision about what had happened.
This is where the encounter with Jesus involves an encounter with others and ourselves. We begin to see others with a different set of eyes and ourselves as well.
Although joy is a gift, it can also be cultivated and increased by the way in which we both receive it and share it.
This sharing presents a special challenge to our generation. With so much focus on information, and the technology to make it more widely dispersed, it is easy to fall into the pattern of simply collecting information in a way that does not include a personal encounter. While this may make us knowledgeable, it runs the risk of doing so without our personal involvement.
Sometimes this involves a conscious decision on our part. Instead of "driving through" or "using the machine," I choose to walk inside the building and encounter someone in person. In a world where efficiency matters, it may seem slower and less desirable, but then again, we might ask ourselves to consider the formula for joy. (Jesus, others, yourself.)
If it ever appears to us that joy is in short supply, we might ask ourselves if we have been engaging in the three encounters that add up to joy.
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The Rev. Hodgson began the pastorate in Poplar Bluff on July 1, 2015. Previous to that, he had served in Carthage, Missouri from 2003 to 2015.
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