Benedictine monk and author Brother David Steindl-Rast once said, “It is not happiness that makes you grateful, rather it is gratefulness that makes you happy.” I would rather say, “It is gratefulness that makes one joyful.” Why is that so? Simply put, the effect of joy on the person experiencing it is much more profound and lasting than happiness. Although we always equate happiness with joy, the former could be fleeting and temporary whereas the latter is enduring and possesses a strong spiritual character. St. Teresa of Calcutta personified joy when she was alive. She always had a joyful smile on her face that many did not realize the decades of spiritual darkness she suffered while serving the poorest of the poor. She wrote in one of her books, “Joy is prayer; joy is strength: joy is love; joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.” When her letters were made public during her beatification process, only then the people understood how much spiritual suffering she had endured. Yet amid this trial, she had not lost her joyful spirit. Instead, she turned joy into a constant companion, a part of her being.

Joy is a mark of holiness because there is no such thing as a morose saint. Joy comes from within. When the heart is attuned to God, it can’t but be filled with joy and peace that can only come from God.

This is precisely what Pope Francis points out in his apostolic exhortation “Gaudete et exultate”—that joy is a saintly virtue. Since we are all called to holiness, our life should manifest joy.

Joy is the face of evangelization. A life that is lived in joy is an effective evangelization in itself. Don’t we feel so energetic and full of life when we are surrounded by people who radiate joy in their very being?

A joyful attitude is effusive and contagious. I remember a lady telling me once about a young woman who used to pass by her place on her way to church every morning. This girl would always stop for a while to greet her good morning with a smile on her lips. The lady said how much she appreciated the girl’s greetings and how her sunny disposition made her feel joyful as well.
In the same manner that a joyful person can positively lift another person’s spirit, a grumpy person can ruin the day for us.
When people around us are grouchy, and constantly criticize others for every little misstep, we tend to feel discouraged and depressed. As a young girl, I remember how afraid I was of people who seldom smiled and appeared too strict and grumpy.

Back in secondary high, I did not have a positive view of nuns. They appeared to me to be too strict and unwelcoming to bubbly youngsters like us who sometimes did mischief on the campus. It led me to believe that a nun must be a sad person. This belief was even confounded by what I heard from my elders who said that only heartbroken women entered the convent. However, my negative perception of the nuns’ sad life inside the convent’s walls completely changed when I encountered the Daughters of St. Paul many years later. These nuns’ joyful attitudes and smiling faces transformed my perspective.

Pope Francis has always spoken of joy as an effective way of witnessing to the gospel. Time and again, he would exhort that not only consecrated persons but Christians as a whole should always be joyful in their witnessing to Jesus.

Living in this age of consumerism, joy and happiness are often regarded as by-products of popularity, achievements, possessions, relationships, good looks, etc. Some people are happy as long as they have what they have been aspiring to get. But would this happiness last? Human as we are, we are always in pursuit of something that would fulfill our heart’s desire and satisfy our longing. There is always a gap within us that needs to be filled. Oftentimes, we don’t even understand what it is we are looking for. St. Augustine puts its best: “Our hearts are restless, O God until it rests in you.”

Inner joy is possible when our heart is in the right place and possesses the right things; when we live fully the very purpose for which God has created us. It does not matter in whatever state we may find ourselves in, as long as we live our life as a joyful thanksgiving to God.

The great mystic Julian of Norwich summed it simply in these words: “The greatest honor [one] can give to God, is to live gladly, joyfully because of the knowledge of his love.”

A grateful heart is joyful.