An Insightful Conversation

In an Islamic text, there is a story about a conversation between Jesus and John the Baptist. One day, Isa (Jesus) meets Yahya (John) and asks him, "Yahya, how can you be so sad?" Yahya replies and asks Isa, "How can you be so joyful?"

In this pericope, the conflict is a question of the essentialism. What is the "essential mood" of Christianity? I am not saying that we should regress into a one-dimensional understanding of Xnity as "essentialist," but merely use this text to illustrate that both moods are warranted by our religion. So, the deeper question remains; While Christians seem to grow in a deeper understanding of repentance, remorse, and relief from our great depavrity, we seem to be ill-equipped to show proper methods of joy. We are, to use the text, too much like John and not enough like Jesus.

The Hasidic Jews celebrate their relationship with God through expressions of joy. Do we do this as well? Are we, in a sense, continually joyful as we are commanded to be? A friend of mine said today that often we feel ill-ease when things are going too well. Because we have a preconceived notion that Christianity is a religion of suffering and not necessarily of joy, when we are joyful, there must be something inherently wrong. We fall into the essentialist trap that Xnity is something monolithic and not open to human permeability. Then, blessings morph into unnecessary anxiety.

She summed this zero-sum negative Christianity well.
"What am I doing wrong that I am so joyful?"

Nothing, express your joy (this is worship, is it not?), but be wary of becoming addicted to its emotional panacea and our own desperate clamors for sensual satiation.