Perfect Joy

One of my favorite figures in the faith is a guy by the name of St. Francis.

Francis of Assisi is well-known for many reasons. At the top is his explanation of what he calls, “perfect joy.” 

I love this. It’s riveting. 

Here’s the story: St. Francis is on the road discussing with another monk, Brother Leo about what perfect joy is for a follower of Jesus. To set the scene: It’s a bitter, cold, winter day. And St. Francis is using the less-than-ideal weather conditions as a backdrop for what it means to have joy in Christ. And he begins by defining what joy is not. 

He says that joy is not attained by an illness being healed.

Joy isn’t attained by driving out demons, gaining all the knowledge in the world, or being able to understand the mysteries of scripture.

He says that joy isn’t even attained by converting all the unbelievers on earth.

Now, for the modern-day Christian, you’re probably thinking the same thing that Brother Leo was thinking, “what in the world does joy look like then?!”

The story goes that brother Leo then asked St. Francis, “Father, I beg you, in God’s name, to tell me what perfect joy is.”

 Here’s his response:  

 “If we arrive at Saint Mary of the Angels (their monastery), all drenched with rain and trembling with cold, all covered with mud and exhausted from hunger; if, when we knock at the convent-gate, the gatekeeper should come angrily and ask us who we are; and if, after we have told him, ‘We are two of the brothers’, he should answer angrily, ‘You’re liars. You’re imposters trying to deceive us and to manipulate the poor, GO AWAY!’; if he then refuses to open the door, and leaves us outside, exposed to the snow and rain, suffering from cold and hunger till nightfall - then, if we accept such injustice, such cruelty and such contempt with patience, without being ruffled and without murmuring, believing with humility and compassion that the gatekeeper really knows us, and that it is God who makes him to speak such things against us, write it down, O Brother Leo, that this is perfect joy.”

 “And if we knock again, and the gatekeeper comes out in anger to drive us away with cursing and mockery, as if we were vile impostors, saying, ‘Go away, you thieves, find a homeless shelter, because you do not belong here’- and if we accept all this with patience, with joy, and with compassion, O Brother Leo, write it down: this is perfect joy.”

 “And if, urged by cold and hunger, we knock again, calling to the gatekeeper and begin weeping and pleading, begging for him—for the love of God—to open the door to us and to give us shelter from the miserable cold, and if he comes out more angry than before, exclaiming, ‘You annoying scoundrels, I will deal with you myself. You’re going to pay.’ And taking a big, knotted stick, he seizes us by our hoods, throws us to the ground, rolls us in the snow, and beats us and wounds us with the knots in the stick – if we bear all these injuries with patience and joy, thinking of the very suffering Jesus himself endured, which we now share out of love and reverence for him, write it down, Brother Leo, because that, finally, is perfect joy.”

 Now, that may seem like a rather exaggerated and strange illustration.

But, St. Francis isn’t a saint for no reason.

He understood this deep and powerful truth.

That to authentically apprentice under Jesus is to imitate Jesus. To follow and mirror and copy and practice what Jesus did.

The same baby put into a trough was the same man nailed to a cross. Our savior, who endured total rejection, humiliation, and suffering for the love of us. 

Suffering with Jesus, St. Francis says, is perfect joy. 

 Listen to how St. Francis concludes his soliloquy.

“And now, brother, listen to the conclusion. Above all the graces and all the gifts of the Holy Spirit which Christ gives to his followers, is the grace of getting over yourself, and accepting willingly, out of love for Christ, all suffering, all injury, all discomfort and contempt that comes your way. Getting out of the way allows us to see that all gifts come from God. See, in the cross of hardships and sufferings, we experience the full joy of Christ, because, as Paul says in Galatians, ‘As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died.’

In the cross of hardships and sufferings, we experience the full joy of Christ. 

 “Perfect joy!"

Francis knew that perfect joy is a gift of the Holy Spirit. That as we grow in Christ, we develop the maturity, the perspective, and the hope in God and who he says he is, to develop the anchor of joy in our souls regardless of the past or present circumstances surrounding us.

Be encouraged.