The Joy of the Gospel

Eight years ago when the actor Leonardo DiCaprio met Pope Francis, they exchanged gifts. The actor and art lover gave the Pope a book about the Dutch painter Hieronymous Bloch and the Pope gave Leonardo red leather-bound copies of his Apostolic letters Laudato Si and The Joy of the Gospel. I wonder whether DiCaprio read either of these Letters? I thought of this exchange of gifts when reading the scriptures for this weekend, especially the Joy of the Gospel.

The reading from Job does not exude much joy. Job’s perception of life is bleak but honest. He sees life as pressed service and hired drudgery. He talks about nights of grief when we can’t sleep, waiting for the dawn and then counting the hours before it is time to go to bed: “My life is but a breath and I will not see joy again.”

We can contrast this with the Gospel where Jesus is in Capernaum and, having preached in the synagogue, goes to the home of Simon and Andrew. There he heals Simon’s mother-in-law of fever. That evening after sunset, everyone came to Jesus, the sick and those possessed by devils. The whole town came crowding round the door. Jesus cured many who were suffering and cast out demons. In all their sorrow and suffering, Jesus brought joy into the lives of the people of Capernaum.

Jesus goes to a lonely place before dawn and prays. When the disciples come looking for him he tells them they must now leave Capernaum and go to the neighbouring towns, too. He states clearly this is what he came to do: Let us go elsewhere, to the neighbouring country towns, so that I can preach there too, because that is why I came. This is the joy that Jesus brought as he travelled through Galilee. He is the good news and the joy that can transform our lives and bring us wholeness.

I love the words of Pope Francis in his letter that he gave to Leonardo DiCaprio:

“An evangeliser (you and I) must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral! Let us recover and deepen our enthusiasm, that ‘delightful and comforting joy of evangelising, even when it is in tears that we must sow… And may the world of our time, which is searching, sometimes with anguish, sometimes with hope, be enabled to receive the good news not from evangelisers who are dejected, discouraged, impatient or anxious, but from ministers of the Gospel whose lives glow with fervour, who have first received the joy of Christ.'”