Ours is a faith of joy

The Faith which the Catholic Church proclaims is a Faith of joy. It is the Faith of the Good News that Angel Gabriel brought to Mother Mary.  This was an event of great joy. On Christmas night, the Angel announced news of great joy – the coming of Emmanuel, God with us. After going through untold human suffering and dying on the cross for our sake, he resurrected on the third day. His resurrection was, and is a great joy for the world.

Our Faith is not a morose or gloomy Faith. The solemnity which we are called upon to give to the celebration of the Holy Eucharist must not be interpreted to mean the absence of joy or the absence of cheerfulness.  This solemnity means seriousness, sincerity, orderliness and respect.  But everything must be done with joy; for how can we receive the Good News and not be joyful?  In Colossians 3:16, we read that as the Colossian faithful assemble in expectation of the Lord’s return, Paul the Apostle exhorts them to sing together ‘Psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles (Col. 3:16). 

Many Catholics have understood the joy of singing at Holy Mass and participate fully in it.  Many priests continue to educate and encourage Christians to join the choir to sing and not wait for the choir to sing alone.  While some people heed this call, many are still to do so especially the men.  Many men sit in Church with their lips tight as if they had been stitched.  Many men do not take their hymnals to Church. Some take them only to show the world that they are God-fearing and devout Christians.  They will not use them to sing.  When a hymn is being sung, you find them sitting and listening passively as if they were only passers-by with their hymnals lying there in front of them.

Dear fellow Catholic Christians, the importance of singing and fully participating  in the Eucharistic celebration with joy cannot be over-emphasized. Talking about Holy Mass, Vatican II Council document on the Sacred Liturgy  Sacrosanctum Concilium  tells us “it is eminently desirable that extensive use be made of singing in the course of the celebration.”  Acts 2:46 says, “singing is an expression of joy.”  According to an old Proverb, “he who sings well is praying twice over.”

Catholic women deserve a pat on the back for they do more of the singing during the Eucharistic celebration.  They give the Mass the color of a joyful feast as during the singing of  the Gloria – the ‘ancient and venerable hymn  by which the Church, gathered together in the Holy Spirit, offers praise and entreaty to God the Father  and to the Lamb’ (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy – Sacrosanctum  Concilium). Sweep the Church with your eyes next Sunday during the singing of this joyful song.  You will find a reflection of the inner joy of women on their faces, their bodies, and their gesticulations. They will gracefully respond to the joy which the Good News announced by the Angel has awakened in their hearts. Meanwhile, the men will stand stiff as pillars as if they were fighting to resist the emotions that well up in them.  At the same time you know their hearts silently sing with joy.  The question is why men would sing inside and strongly refuse to externalize that inner feeling.  Is it unmanly for a man to dance at Mass to the tune of a melody as our women do? Young people more readily join the women to express their inward feeling, but not the men especially those of the old school.  Either they are feeling too big, too proud, too old fashioned, not confident enough or not humble enough to behave like little children before the Lord. Real men do show their emotions.  There is nothing wrong or degrading in showing joy when we celebrate the Good News that brings joy. There is no reason for women to be so alive during offertory processions in Church while the men move as if they were soldiers marching; or as if they were accompanying Jesus on the road to Calvary.

Let the joy that our Faith generates be seen in the way we participate in the celebration of the Eucharist and in other Church activities.