Where is the joy? Go on a Treasure Hunt!

I have been Catholic for five years now and it still amazes me the lack of joy I see from our faith community. If you are not joyful, you have missed the point. Trust me, I used to be just like you.

I make no secret that I came to Catholicism dragging my feet and pouting like a teenager. I felt God calling me to marry my husband (who was Catholic) and so I felt sure that God also wanted me to convert. But here’s the thing about what God wants, it’s not always what we want. Sometimes we lift our eyes to the sky and say, “What do you want me to do Lord? Please just tell me!” Some of us are blessed to get a loud and clear response to questions. But then, we don’t always like the answer. So I had my answer but I didn’t like it.

And even knowing what He wants us to do, doesn’t always make it easy to follow through. This is how I felt about converting to Catholicism. I was obedient on the outside but not in my heart. This is kind of like saying you’re sorry while rolling your eyes.

It’s a long a detailed story about how I ended up loving our great Catholic faith but the more I uncovered, the more I was surprised about how unexcited everyone else was. It was like discovering this great treasure and then looking around to say, “Look you guys, diamonds and rubies and gold!” And then being met with apathetic faces which seemed to say, “Yeah, so what, that’s always been here. It’s no big deal.”

No big deal? What are you talking about? The Catholic Church is a treasure! You have Mary and the Saints and all the writings of the Church. I even came to like the Catechism of the Church! How great to have a place to get your questions completely and clearly answered.

I discovered the Divine Mercy Chaplet and the Rosary. I was awed by the promises made if you pray those. Why aren’t we all praying those every day?

I slowly came to realize that many Catholics are either completely unaware of these treasures (and there are so many) or they are only aware of the surface level information. For example, someone might know what a rosary is and even how to pray it but they were never taught what it means. Or maybe they weren’t taught the promises of the rosary or they don’t know the story behind how we received those prayers. It’s a cool story, by the way.

Surprisingly, this gave me relief. At least I realize that it wasn’t that Catholics knew about the treasure and were unimpressed. Rather, they didn’t see the treasure or the treasure they did see was covered in the dirt of the world. This gave me great hope that if we just grab people by the shoulders, shake them and say, “Here is the truth! Here is the real treasure!” that maybe we have a chance at putting joy back into the Catholic community.

So my question or rather my challenge to you is this. Do you have joy? Is there a warm fire inside of you that burns for Christ? Do you have this fire even if you’re going through a rough time or if you’re surrounded by unbelievers? Do you have hope?

If the answer to these questions is no, ask yourself, have I really discovered the treasure? Have I really uncovered the great tools that the Catholic church has given to me? I would guess you haven’t.

Go on a treasure hunt and don’t stop until you have such joy, such a fire in you that you are a glowing light for Christ to those around you. Read some books. Watch some YouTube videos. Listen to some Podcasts. There are endless resources.

You should be different. You should make people stop and wonder, why is she so happy? Where does he get that attitude from? You should be a light in this world of darkness. You should be a hope in a world of sadness because you can turn people to Christ. He is the only way. If you miss that, you’re missing everything.