Miles Jesu: Sons and Daughters of the Immaculate of Heart of Our Lady of the Epiphany, An Ecclesial Family of Consecrated Life in the Catholic Church

Sacrifice and Joy

Editor’s note: The statement on Miles Jesu’s charism approved at the November 2009 General Assembly lists four virtues that we especially aspire to: availability, simplicity, sacrifice, and joy (with a special precedence for availability as a key to all spiritual progress. cf Miles Jesu Monthly January 2010) This month we will look at sacrifice and joy together.

JOy and Sacrifice A “spirit of sacrifice” and a “spirit of joy” seem diametrically opposed at first glance. Say the word “joy” and thoughts of smiling faces, laughter, and pleasantness come to mind. “Sacrifice” conjures up much more somber thoughts—less pleasant activities without the smiles and laughter.

But as Christians we know that rather than being mutually exclusive, joy and sacrifice complement each other. We know even instinctively that there is something not quite authentic about the sad-eyed “sugar-coated martyr” who loves to patiently and continually remind us of the many burdens in his (or her) life. As St. Teresa of Jesus said, “A sad saint is a sorry saint.” And all of us feel more inspired by the serene joy of a true missionary than by fire and brimstone preaching with no promise of the beauty of heaven behind it.

Joy and sacrifice must go together for either one to be real. The philosophy of stoicism went to the extreme of pursuing sacrifice and suffering without any hint of joy. More prevalent in our current culture, though, is the other extreme of “joy” without sacrifice. The astonishing thing is that much, if not most, of all the suffering going on in the world right this minute is caused by the pursuit of artificial “joy.” Just think about it. The common good on the international and national levels is threatened by the greed and selfishness of the privileged few. Victims of crimes, their families, and yes even the criminals, are suffering because of someone’s self-centered quest for “joy.” Or even in our own lives: what do your children fight about? What causes unpleasantness at work? What are our own deepest worries? A huge proportion of life’s problems are rooted in the pursuit of joy without sacrifice.

Jesus teaches us firsthand the relationship between joy and sacrifice. Joy and sacrifice are friends! They aren’t happy unless they are together. Yes, joy—true joy—is the goal. True joy is what we mean when we talk about the beatific vision. The ultimate reason for the existence of each person is to join Our Lord in heaven, and there to share his joy. This message begins whispering to us in the Book of Genesis and gains momentum through the scriptures until every page of the gospels is shouting it; it reverberates through the rest of the New Testament and resounds through the continuous teaching of the Church through the millennia.

On the night before his crucifixion Jesus emphasized this message repeatedly to his disciples:
“All this I tell you that my joy may be yours and your joy may be complete.” (Jn 15:11)
“I tell you truly: you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices, you will grieve for a time, but your grief will be turned into joy.”(Jn. 16:20)

“...I will see you again, then your hearts will rejoice with a joy no one can take from you.” (Jn. 16:22)
God places a joyful goal before us. But he offers it to us as a choice. Original sin, personal sin, all the weakness and stupidity man is capable of, lead us to consider other choices too. The joy of heaven seems distant and at the end of a daunting path, as though we were standing at the bottom of a mountain preparing to climb up to the snowy peaks. The lowlands have their attractions too and are much less demanding. To ascend the heights will be an arduous task. It will demand sacrifice. It will mean a spirit of sacrifice to reach the joy.

Jesus taught us to pursue true joy, and this is how:
“Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection: for the sake of the joy which lay ahead of him, he endured the cross, disregarding the shame of it, and has taken his seat at the right of God’s throne.” (Heb 12:2)

“For the sake of the joy which lay ahead of him he endured the cross...”
Here in less than one sentence is an amazing answer to some of life’s toughest questions. Why did Jesus ‘have to’ die? What is the purpose of suffering? Is a spirit of sacrifice needed? (yes) Is it an end in itself? (no). Does God want us to suffer?

Jesus “endured the cross.”
He cradled it in his arms and carried it through crowds of people whom he loved infinitely, who jeered and threw rocks at him. He stretched out his arms in a gesture of embrace and allowed himself to be nailed to it amid the taunts, insults, and rejections of those he came to save. And he died on it, gasping for breath and with all his nerves jangling in terrible pain.

He “disregarded the shame of it.”
We are so accustomed to the gospel story that it’s easy to forget the “shame” of the cross or, as it is also referred to in the epistles, the “scandal” of the cross. Crucifixion was a means of execution—a disgraceful death as well as a very painful one. And Jesus, proclaimed “Messiah,” “Son of the Living God,” and so many other exalted titles, was rejected by those he came to reach, rejected with the finality of their—our—bringing about his death. But he disregarded this, deeming it all as worth the goal.

He has “taken his seat at the right of God’s throne.”
Here the mystery is explained. For the God-Man to build a road to God’s throne that his new brothers and sisters could follow, he carried the cross and gave his life for us on it as on an altar. He came down to the shambles our bad choices had led us to and built a highway with the wood of the cross, stained with his blood.

That is why a spirit of sacrifice and a spirit of joy, to be authentically Christian, go hand in hand.

To reach true joy, we need to sacrifice. But the spirit of joy is not a future goal. Joy is ours for the taking, and we should take it. Doesn’t it make you more joyful to realize that you are a weak and pathetic creature who is infinitely loved, than to act on the assumption that it’s all up to you? What an insupportable burden! How peace-giving to leave things in God’s hands and not always even have to understand why he’s doing what he’s doing, than to spend life angrily demanding constant answers and explanations and consolations from him. A true spirit of sacrifice is inherently joined to a spirit of joy. Each sacrifice is one more step to the ultimate joy!

Quoting St. Augustine, the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains sacrifice this way:
“It is right to offer sacrifice to God as a sign of adoration and gratitude, supplication and communion: “Every action done so as to cling to God in communion of holiness, and thus achieve blessedness, is a true sacrifice.”(St. Augustine)” (CCC 2099)

A spirit of sacrifice calls for uniting ourselves to God’s will in all the events of our daily lives, large and small. “[T]he laity, dedicated as they are to Christ and anointed by the Holy Spirit, are marvelously called and prepared so that even richer fruits of the Spirit may be produced in them. For all their works, prayers, and apostolic undertakings, family and married life, daily work, relaxation of mind and body, if they are accomplished in the Spirit—indeed even the hardships of life if patiently born—all these become spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. In the celebration of the Eucharist these may most fittingly be offered to the Father along with the body of the Lord. And so, worshiping everywhere by their holy actions, the laity consecrate the world itself to God, everywhere offering worship by the holiness of their lives.” (Lumen Gentium 34) This teaching from Vatican II is so important that it is quoted verbatim both in the catechism (CCC 901) and Christifidelis Laici, John Paul II’s great encyclical on the laity. Let us follow it closely, offering our “sacrifice of praise” in a spirit of joy and trust.