CHEERFULNESS
Don Pietro Leone
According
to St. Thomas Aquinas, cheerfulness is a particular virtue which is a part of
justice. The virtue of justice is defined as the virtue of giving the other his
due, whether that other is God or man. An example of justice in the strict
sense is paying back a debt. Now cheerfulness involves giving another something
which is not due to him strictly, but in equity, in fairness: namely by behaving pleasantly to those around
one. Cheerfulness, like truthfulness, is completely natural, because man naturally
lives in society, and without cheerfulness and truthfulness society would not
last. St. Thomas quotes Aristotle in this regard: ‘No-one could abide a single
day with the sad or with the joyless’.
Why cheerfulness is necessary to society is
because it maintains harmony between the different members of society, both in
actions and in words. Cheerfulness, apart from being a part of justice, is a
form of friendliness. We can distinguish between two forms of friendliness: a
particular form which springs from a particular affection for a friend; and a
general form which springs from a general affection for all people.
Cheerfulness is this latter form of friendliness: it is directed towards
every-one. It is directed towards every-one, though not always in the same way:
not with the same intimacy with a stranger as with a friend, for example, but
in an appropriate way: in a way that suits the circumstances. Interestingly the
book of Ecclesiasticus (4.7) particularly mentions the poor as the object of our
cheerfulness or friendliness, perhaps because it can be more difficult to be
friendly to the poor: ‘Make thyself affable to the congregation of the poor’.
St. Thomas describes two ways of being
cheerful: one way is by sharing our pleasures with others in general (Psalm
132): ‘Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in
unity’; another way is by consoling others (Ecclesiastes 7.5): ’The heart of
the wise is where there is no mourning’; (Romans 14.15): ’If because of thy meat
thy brother is grieved, thou walkest not now according to charity’;
(Ecclesiasticus 7.38): ’be not wanting in comforting them that weep, and walk
with them that mourn’. The only exception he gives to cheerfulness is when we
would by our cheerfulness encourage the other person to sin. In this regard he
quotes St. Paul (2 Corinthians 7.8): ‘Although I made you sorrowful by my
epistle, I do not repent... I am glad, not because you were made sorrowful, but
because you were made sorrowful unto penance’. St. Thomas comments: ‘For this
reason we should not show a cheerful face to those who are given to sin, in
order that we may please them, lest we seem to consent to their sin, and in a
way encourage them to sin further’.
We might say that cheerfulness has two essential
qualities: it is affectionate and joyful. Its affectionate quality resides in
its friendliness; its joyfulness derives from the joy which the cheerful person
possesses. St. Thomas in fact calls cheerfulness the sign and effect of
gladness.
In what does joyfulness or gladness consist?
Joy proceeds from the possession of a good, of something which I perceive or
experience as a good. It proceeds from the possession of a good suitable to my
nature, from the possession of something which enables me to attain a natural
perfection. If I am thirsty, I drink a glass of water and it gives me pleasure.
The pleasure arises because my body experiences the water as good, as a good
suitable to its nature.
There are different forms of good: the good
that is the object of the senses like the glass of water when I am thirsty; the
good that is the object of the emotions like a child loved by his mother; and
the good that is the object of the will like God Himself. The joy, or pleasure,
in each case consists in a movement of the body (in the case of the senses or
the emotions) or in a movement of the will: the consent or acquiescence of the
will in the good, the resting of the will in the good. Eternal Beatitude
consists in the stable and eternal resting of the will in the Perfect and
Infinite Good, or in other words it consists in our love of the Infinite Good
Who is God.
The joy or pleasure that proceeds from the
possession of each good is proportionate to the greatness of such a good. The
delight in a sense object is small, the delight of a mother in her child is
greater, the delight which proceeds from the possession of God, for example by
the saints in Heaven, is the greatest of all. Practicing, and especially
consecrated, Catholics should be joyful, because they possess God to the
greatest extent to which it is possible in this world.
Assiduity in regard to the sacraments,
faithful observance of the commandments and of a Rule (in the case of
religious) are guarantees of this spiritual joyfulness. It is increased by
ascetic discipline and meditation on the Passion of Our Blessed Lord.
Consecrated men and women who have left everything in order entirely to possess
and to be possessed by God, free themselves from the World for the enjoyment of
not only the greatest good but also of the greatest delight, or joy. One sees
the presence of spiritual joy in those who have devoted themselves entirely to
God. By contrast one sadly notices the
absence of such a joy in the worldly; and the more worldly they are, the more
one notices its absence.
If a practicing, and, particularly, a
consecrated Catholic is not joyful, this is a sign that there is some
psychological or moral problem. In a certain sense there are no sad saints.
Spiritual joy combined with Charity makes for cheerfulness in the highest
degree. Think of the Sisters of Charity of Mother Theresa of Calcutta for
instance(to a community of whom a version of this talk was given some years
ago).
There are three conditions, or vices,
opposed to cheerfulness.
Sadness is opposed to that delight or joy
from which cheerfulness derives. Sadness is the emotion that arises from the
presence of something perceived or experienced as bad or evil. If we are prone
to sadness, we must take steps to overcome it. The regulation of the passions
belongs to the life of virtue. We should feel sadness towards Our Suffering and
Crucified Lord; our own internal sadness we should regulate with the virtue of
temperance, or moderation, offering it up to God when it comes, not letting it
get the better of us, never making important decisions while in its grip. If we
are unable to overcome it, we must try to accept it, and not let it show. This
will be part of the cross which we must bear. St. Jeanne Francoise de Chantal
was considered by St. Francois de Sales as a particularly great saint, because,
despite her profound internal sadness and sufferings, she was always cheerful.
A sad saint is an unfortunate saint. We should try to be the sort of saints
that people will want to imitate, namely cheerful saints: for cheerfulness is a
mark of the possession of a profound and genuine good: it is a way that we can
attract people by our example to lead a life of devotion to God.
Let us briefly glance at the two other
conditions opposed to cheerfulness. The first is flattery. Flattery is the vice
of being agreeable to another in order to gain something from him – whereas
cheerfulness is the virtue of being agreeable to some-one without hope of gain.
Quarrelsomeness, by contrast, is the vice of contradicting another with the
object of being disagreeable, or without the fear of being disagreeable. St.
Thomas quotes St. Paul (2 Tim2): ‘The servant of the Lord must not wrangle’.
And so, dear Readers, let us not be upset by
the evils in the Church and the World, and particularly not by the folly of our
Churchmen. God permits this and He is drawing a higher good from it which we do
not know. It is for us to think of our own salvation: to lead a good life and
unite ourselves ever more intimately to the One and Perfect Good, so that we
may have joy, and communicate joy to others; so that we may live in harmony and
friendliness with all in this world, until with all the choirs of the angels
and faithful we may enjoy together that perfect joy in Heaven, in the eternal
possession of the One and Triune Godhead. Amen.
Immaculate Conception, Mother of Our
Saviour, pray for us!
