I am teaching in my Parish’s OCIA (formerly known as RCIA) program. The woman who is in charge of the program is the sister of a man I know from the Knights of Columbus.
When I introduced myself to the class I asked if anyone knew Charles, the brother of the woman in charge. She said she did but no one else knew him. I told this story:
One day I was with Charles at some Knight’s function. Suddenly Charles said, “You know Gillen, you’re the only man I know who smiles all the time and is not a complete idiot.”
I thanked him, making note of the fact he said I wasn’t a “complete” idiot. That left room for being a partial idiot.
I told the class I never gave that much thought, but after Charles brought it up, I realized I do smile a lot. I don’t think about it. It just happens.
I also told the class every Christian, especially every Catholic in the state of grace, should be full of Joy. I also said the joy should show itself in the form of a smile on your face.
I hadn’t planned this to be a big matter. Then I saw an ad for a book that was coming out, The Mystery of Joy, by Peter Kreeft. I ordered it and have been reading it for a few days now. I’m on chapter four. No hurry.
Here is the first paragraph in the first chapter:
The fact that you are reading this book proves you do not have the joy and peace that you want. If you were in Heaven now, you would not be reading a book about joy; you would be swimming in joy. Those who live in the golden castle do not read maps about how to get there. The lack of deep joy has been true of all times, places, and cultures since Eden. But it is especially true of this time and this culture. No one writing about our culture would label it a “culture of joy”. Our children still smile, but our young people do not, except at late-night dance clubs while fueled by drink and drugs. Africans who are poor still smile, and so do Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity. The poor smile more than the rich, and they commit suicide far less frequently. There is more prosperity and more suicide in Western civilization (which used to be called “Christendom”) than anywhere else in the world. That is simply a fact.
Pretty direct and not very hopeful. However, knowing this is Peter Kreeft, I know he is a man who will challenge me while reassuring me God is there and I can depend on Him.
He continues in the third chapter:
Here is probably the most surprising idea in this book: that joy is not essentially a subjective feeling but an objective fact. We know we have joy by our faith, not by our feelings. When faith follows fact, it flourishes; when faith follows feeling, it falls.
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Feelings are subjective: in us, dependent on us. They enter into us and exit out of us because they are smaller than we are. But true joy is bigger than we are because it is God Himself. We enter into it (Mt 25:21).
Kreeft talks about how feelings can be misleading. God is not a feeling. Our faith is not about feelings. Our faith is made up of objective truths about God. Faith is knowledge, not feeling.
When I was a senior in high school I took a class titled Modern European Literature. I’ve written about it before. The man who taught the class was a devout Catholic by faith and a true classicist by training. This was in 1969-1970. The term “I feel that . . .” was replacing “I think that . . .” in common speech. Today it is hard to find anyone on news programs or in political discussions who say, “I think”, rather than, “I feel”. That may account for some of the issues Kreeft talks about in Chapter 1.
This book is 95 chapters long. However, the chapters are only two or three pages each. Kreeft suggests reading two or three chapters at a time and then spending some time thinking about, reflecting about, what he says.
This may be a long read.
Greg Gillen
March 4, 2025
© 2025 Greg Gillen
Image Credit/Wedding at Cana by Bortolo Litterini – 1721/www.learnreligions.com/wedding-at-cana-bible-story-summary-700069
