Who/What gives you the most joy?

17th January 2012   ·   0 Comments

By Fr. Jerome LeDoux
Contributing Columnist

Because of its many implications, this question is almost an ambush inquiry. A column that I wrote two years ago has a very similar bent, “Who/What Is Your God?”

Yes, at one time or other, human beings tend to replace God with another person or a thing like, wealth, power, prestige, vain beauty, physical or intellectual performance. Unfortunately, it is baffling that we can add to that list even spiritual performance.

An August 2, 2010 column asked, “Are You Aware of Your Secret Motives?”

That question, of course, is somewhat scarier and more personal than the previous.

The question/column that lies between those just mentioned is likewise a sticky one, “Are Your Motives Really Spiritual?” Which criteria enable us to discern between what we embrace as material or earthly and what we see as spiritual and otherworldly?

“Did Jesus Have a Holy Swagger?” is another column among several similar ones that probe the interplay of our human weaknesses and strengths. With­out intentionally having any swagger, Jesus, by nature of his having God as his Father was peerless.

We, to the contrary, are inherently so weak that any accomplishment of virtually any note intoxicates us. Such intoxication is a form of what we might call joy. So I press the question, “Who/What gives you the most joy in life?” Is it such intoxication?

Do you glory in your physical ability to do the work you need to do, to get around well and in style, to manage your work and your life in such a way that your family has a decent living free of economic insecurity and financial uncertainties?

Beyond your work — unless your work is indeed professional sports — do you take pride and joy in your athleticism in various sports whether professional or amateur? The boundless joy of youthful physical prowess is evident in both animals and humans, for neither of the two can ever get enough of gamboling and bounding around.

Joy accruing from your intellectual gifts can be an intoxication far exceeding that from your physical abilities. But it is an astounding mixture of the two that inspires and sends into ecstasy the greatest number of people. Such joyous mixtures of the physical and intellectual are singing, dancing, writing and reciting prose and poetry.

No matter what kind or level of intellectual or physical activity brings you joy, you are on shaky spiritual ground if you take joy in trying to be better than others, except when the competition is a fun thing, a way to make a living or perhaps get a scholarship.

Taking pride and joy in your ethnicity is a good and wholesome thing, provided you do not belittle any other ethnic group. In Galatians 3:28, Paul gives us the healthiest view of ethnic interaction, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Is your rush simply the joie de vivre, the sheer joy of living, which is a combination of physical well-being and strength, intellectual clarity and sharpness, and the pinnacle of spiritual knowledge, understanding, development and appreciation? I can hear you saying, “This is what I like,” or “This is what I love.”

But, if your joy is something as earthy as the joy of eating and drinking, allow me to repeat a thought here. Paul tells us in Philippians 3:19, “Many, as I have often told you and now tell you even in tears, conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction. Their god is their stomach; their glory is in their ‘shame.’”

No matter what, as human beings we are invariably going to seek out what gives us the most joy in life. That can be a slippery slope and a dangerous negative for us.

Yet, in 1 Corinthians 10:31, Paul tells us to turn a potential negative into a positive, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.” We do not have to feel guilty about food or other pleasurable things enjoyed for God’s glory.

I pray that, as your years fall away, you will gradually find your greatest joy in the sharing of your time, talent, treasure, energy, resources and joy itself with everyone else.

Consider yourself blessed, fortunate and privileged if “Who gives you the most joy?” is the question rather than “What gives you the most joy?” Consider yourself many times even more blessed if the “Who” is a person or persons in communion with God.

This article was originally published in the January 16, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper