What Is the Source of Your Joy?
Mystic and theologian Howard Thurman (1899–1981) writes of faith as the most secure foundation for joy:
There are some who are dependent upon the mood of others for their happiness…. There are some whose joy is dependent upon circumstances…. There are some who must win their joy against high odds, squeeze it out of the arid ground of their living or wrest it from the stubborn sadness of circumstance…. There are still others who find their joy deep in the heart of their religious experience. It is not related to, dependent upon, or derived from, any circumstances or conditions in the midst of which they must live. It is a joy independent of all vicissitudes. There is a strange quality of awe in their joy, that is but a reflection of the deep calm water of the spirit out of which it comes. It is primarily a discovery of the soul, when God makes known [God’s] presence, where there are no words, no outward song, only the Divine Movement. This is the joy that the world cannot give. This is the joy that keeps watch against all the emissaries of sadness of mind and weariness of soul. This is the joy that comforts and is the companion, as we walk even through the valley of the shadow of death. [1]
Catholic priest Henri Nouwen (1932–1996) writes of the joy we experience through the love of God:
Joy is a gift that is there even when we are sorrowful, even when we are in pain, even when things are difficult in our lives. The joy that Jesus offers is a joy that exists in very, very difficult situations….
What we have to start sensing is that in the spiritual life, joy is embracing sorrow and happiness, pain and pleasure. It is deeper, fuller. It is more. It is something that remains with us. It is something of God that is very profound. It is something we can experience even when we are in touch with very painful things in our lives. If there is anything the church wants to teach us it is that the joy of God can be with us always—in moments of sickness, in moments of health, in moments of success, in moments of failure, in moments of birth, in moments of death. The joy of God is never going to leave us….
When we can face our own painful situation, we will discover that hidden in the pain is the treasure—a joy that is there for us to experience here and now. It is very important that we get in touch with this. That is what the spiritual life—the life with God—is about. It is being in touch with that love that becomes joy in us…. Underneath all our fluctuations is a deep solid divine stream that is called joy. [2]
| Cognitive Dissonance (Part 2) Yesterday, we looked at how the religious leaders tried to reconcile their strongly held beliefs with compelling evidence that contradicted those beliefs. The Pharisees believed that blindness was a punishment from God for sin and that anyone who violated the Sabbath by working was both a lawbreaker and a sinner and therefore not from God. And yet, in John 9, they are confronted by two troubling facts. First, a man born blind had his sight miraculously restored by Jesus, and Jesus performed this healing on a Sabbath by mixing his saliva with dirt and wiping the mud on the man’s eyes—a clear and flagrant violation of their interpretation of the law forbidding any work on the Sabbath. The conflict between these facts and their beliefs is what psychologists call “cognitive dissonance.”To resolve this cognitive dissonance, the religious leaders had two options. They could either rethink their strongly held beliefs or they could reject the evidence that challenged them. Valuing their certainty more than the truth, the Pharisees chose the latter option. Consistent with what research has found about how most people respond to cognitive dissonance, first, the religious leaders denied the evidence as fake. They said the man wasn’t actually born blind. The whole thing was “fake news.” When that didn’t work, they tried to discredit the messenger. Rather than dealing with the evidence, they simply called the blind man an uneducated sinner who couldn’t be trusted.Researchers have found that when denying the evidence and discrediting the messenger isn’t enough, we will try one last desperate measure to avoid cognitive dissonance—distance. In John 9, the Pharisees do this by banishing the blind man. Verse 34 says, “They threw him out.” The language here is more technical. It means the man was excommunicated from the synagogue community. Not only was he barred from joining others for worship, but the other Jews were forbidden from engaging with him. He was to be considered an outcast, a heretic, and no better than an unbeliever.The religious leaders did not take this drastic action because the man had done anything illegal or sinful, but simply because he represented a threat to the certainty of their theology and authority. As long as he was part of the synagogue and shared his story of behind healed by Jesus on the Sabbath, he would cause others to question the correctness of the leaders’ teaching and interpretation of Scripture. The blind man was what psychologists call a “carrier of dissonance.” And if his story could not be denied, and if his credibility could not be destroyed, then the only option left for the religious leaders was to put as much distance between themselves and the source of the dissonance. Sociologist Peter Berger describes it this way:”People try to avoid cognitive dissonance. The only way to avoid it, however, is to avoid the ‘carriers’ of dissonance, both non-human and human. Thus individuals who hold political position X will avoid reading newspaper articles that tend to support position Y. By the same token, these individuals will avoid conversations with Y-ists but seek out X-ists as conversation partners. When people have a strong personal investment in a particular definition of reality—such as strongly held religious or political positions, or convictions that relate directly to their way of life…, they will go to great lengths to set up both behavioral and cognitive defenses.”Today, we see this happening on both the individual and national levels. Increasingly, people will switch what groups they belong to, what church they attend, and even where they live, in order to be surrounded by like-minded people and avoid anyone who might challenge their beliefs. It’s why over the last 20 years red states have become redder and blue states have become bluer. Sociologists call it the “Big Sort.” Today, it’s increasingly rare to live near, work with, or worship beside someone who votes or thinks differently than you do. This polarization is driven by the same insecurity that motivated the Pharisees—our deep desire to avoid the discomfort of cognitive dissonance. We don’t want to have the certainty of our beliefs challenged in any way, and if we can’t banish those we disagree with we will banish ourselves into a safe enclave of news and neighbors that will affirm what we want to hear even if it’s not what we need to hear.[Note: I’ve decided to keep all of John 9 as the Scripture reading as we examine this chapter. I encourage you to read or listen to the full chapter every day and internalize the story. By meditating on its themes, my hope is that you will come to see yourself in some of the characters, and ultimately be drawn closer to Christ.] |
| Weekly Prayer from St. Gertrude the Great (1256 – 1302) |
| Lord, in union with your love, unite my work with your great work, and perfect it. As a drop of water, poured into a river, is taken up into the activity of the river, so may my labor become part of your work. So, may those among whom I live and work be drawn into your love. Amen. |
Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind
John 9
1As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. 2 “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?”
3 “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him. 4 We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us.[a] The night is coming, and then no one can work. 5 But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.”
6 Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes. 7 He told him, “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “sent”). So the man went and washed and came back seeing!
8 His neighbors and others who knew him as a blind beggar asked each other, “Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some said he was, and others said, “No, he just looks like him!”
But the beggar kept saying, “Yes, I am the same one!”
10 They asked, “Who healed you? What happened?”
11 He told them, “The man they call Jesus made mud and spread it over my eyes and told me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash yourself.’ So I went and washed, and now I can see!”
12 “Where is he now?” they asked.
“I don’t know,” he replied.
13 Then they took the man who had been blind to the Pharisees, 14 because it was on the Sabbath that Jesus had made the mud and healed him. 15 The Pharisees asked the man all about it. So he told them, “He put the mud over my eyes, and when I washed it away, I could see!”
16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man Jesus is not from God, for he is working on the Sabbath.” Others said, “But how could an ordinary sinner do such miraculous signs?” So there was a deep division of opinion among them.
17 Then the Pharisees again questioned the man who had been blind and demanded, “What’s your opinion about this man who healed you?”
The man replied, “I think he must be a prophet.”
18 The Jewish leaders still refused to believe the man had been blind and could now see, so they called in his parents.19 They asked them, “Is this your son? Was he born blind? If so, how can he now see?”
20 His parents replied, “We know this is our son and that he was born blind, 21 but we don’t know how he can see or who healed him. Ask him. He is old enough to speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who had announced that anyone saying Jesus was the Messiah would be expelled from the synagogue. 23 That’s why they said, “He is old enough. Ask him.”
24 So for the second time they called in the man who had been blind and told him, “God should get the glory for this,[b] because we know this man Jesus is a sinner.”
25 “I don’t know whether he is a sinner,” the man replied. “But I know this: I was blind, and now I can see!”
26 “But what did he do?” they asked. “How did he heal you?”
27 “Look!” the man exclaimed. “I told you once. Didn’t you listen? Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?”
28 Then they cursed him and said, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses! 29 We know God spoke to Moses, but we don’t even know where this man comes from.”
30 “Why, that’s very strange!” the man replied. “He healed my eyes, and yet you don’t know where he comes from?31 We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but he is ready to hear those who worship him and do his will.32 Ever since the world began, no one has been able to open the eyes of someone born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he couldn’t have done it.”
34 “You were born a total sinner!” they answered. “Are you trying to teach us?” And they threw him out of the synagogue.
Spiritual Blindness
35 When Jesus heard what had happened, he found the man and asked, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?[c]”
36 The man answered, “Who is he, sir? I want to believe in him.”
37 “You have seen him,” Jesus said, “and he is speaking to you!”
38 “Yes, Lord, I believe!” the man said. And he worshiped Jesus.
39 Then Jesus told him,[d] “I entered this world to render judgment—to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see[e] that they are blind.”
40 Some Pharisees who were standing nearby heard him and asked, “Are you saying we’re blind?”
41 “If you were blind, you wouldn’t be guilty,” Jesus replied. “But you remain guilty because you claim you can see.
