They say that timing is everything. Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan was a young bishop in Vietnam when, in 1975, he was appointed Archbishop of Saigon. It would give him the opportunity to reach thousands of souls for Christ, to shepherd the Lord’s flock in a way he could have never imagined. But timing is everything. Six days after his appointment, Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese army. Because of his ardent faith and his family connections to the former regime, the bishop was arrested and imprisoned for 13 years. Nine of those years were spent in solitary confinement.
In the first days of his captivity he could hear the ringing of the bells of the cathedral in the city of Nha Trang, where he had previously been bishop. The prison was that close. Far from becoming bitter about that ironic reality, he would later say, “The Father never abandoned me.” His deep faith endured through those initial days of trial and he kept his focus on God.
From the outset there were five guards assigned to Van Thuan; they would take shifts, two at a time, watching over him. At first the leaders determined to change the groups completely every two weeks, fearing the guards would become “contaminated” by this dangerous bishop. Van Thuan said to himself, “You have the love of Christ in your heart; love them as Jesus loved you.” The affect on the guards was so powerful that many of them began to consider him a friend and not a prisoner. The leaders then told the guards, “We’ve decided not to switch you anymore; otherwise this bishop will contaminate all of the police.”
In 1998, Van Thuan was finally released from prison. Three years later, realizing how contagious the bishop’s faith was, the government “invited” him to leave the country and never come back! He came to Rome and in 1994 St. John Paul II appointed him Prefect for the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. He was later created a Cardinal. In 2017 Pope Francis named him venerable, the first step on the way to becoming a canonized saint. Whether prisoner or prelate, Venerable Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan was always a man totally filled with joy; it literally overflowed into the lives of those around him.
Today we celebrate Gaudete Sunday. That word, Gaudete, is Latin for joy. The entrance antiphon for this Third Sunday of Advent is taken from St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed the Lord is near” (Philippians 4:4-5). We rejoice because the celebration of the birth of Christ is nearly upon us, and He is the source of our joy.
In the Second Reading this morning, St. Paul repeats his sentiments from the entrance antiphon when he says, “Rejoice always” (1 Thessalonians 5:16). We do well to remember that this is the same man that was imprisoned many times for his faith in Christ. St. Paul was beaten, scourged, stoned, rejected and scorned by many of his contemporaries. What he reminds us of, along with Cardinal Van Thuan, is that our joy is not founded on feelings or circumstances but on a person: God, the Holy Spirit.
The 16th Century “Apostle of Rome,” St. Philip Neri would often say that joy is the infallible sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit. If you find true joy in a person then you will also be able to recognize the presence of God. Joy, however, is not the same thing as happiness. The world we live in uses those terms interchangeably, but they are different. One can be really unhappy about the circumstances of life (like Cardinal Van Thuan or St. Paul would have been when they were deprived of their freedom and treated so shamefully) but at the same time possess the abiding joy of the Holy Spirit.
The Prophet Isaiah announces the Messiah this morning in our First Reading, and how the Spirit of God will bring joy to those in distress. He writes:
The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the Lord and a day of vindication by our God. I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul.
—Isaiah 61:1-2, 10
This Gaudete Sunday, as we draw ever closer to the birth of Christ, we can ask ourselves: “Where will we find joy this Christmas.” Because it might be found in the circumstances of our lives; it is possible that we will discover that joy in the sentiments of this season, which open us up through beautiful memories and kindness in the present moment. But there is no guarantee of that reality for all of us.
There is, however, a promise from God that He will come to us, when we love Him and keep His commandments; that He will make His home in us when we open our hearts to Christ (see John 14:23). This is the promise of the Holy Spirit, who lived in St. Paul and in Cardinal Van Thuan, and who lives in us through the power of Baptism and the overwhelming grace of God. Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit. We pray this weekend for the Holy Spirit to find a home in our hearts, so that we also might spread that joy to all we encounter this Christmas.
