The world has no knowledge whatsoever of Christian joy, and is, in fact, quite frankly unaware of its existence.

   Its inability to know it is a matter of fact and of nature, as Jesus Christ's forthright words show: I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete to dwell with you forever, the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him...( Jn 14:16-17). So, as regards the Spirit, the world neither sees Him nor knows Him; it has no notion about Him, neither via visual nor direct perception, nor even via hearsay. And Saint Paul is no less categorical: But the sensual man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; he is not able to understand them, because their value can be assessed only in the Spirit (1 Cor 2:14). If one bears in mind that Love is the fruit and the result of the presence of the Spirit (Rom 5:5), it is easy to conclude that, according to the texts, the world has no access at all to Joy, for Joy is nothing other than the feeling caused by Love, as its most direct effect (Gal 5:22).

   Modern Pastoral Policy, over-eager to acknowledge that the Christian is inserted in the world –and to a certain extent, also shaken by the famous accusations of alienation made by Marxist philosophers—, has been reticent when it comes to spelling out the sharp division that exists between the Christian and the world, which the biblical texts establish. Speaking of which, anyone would think that the Second Vatican Council made an extraordinary effort to prove just the opposite.

   This Pastoral policy has failed to find the perfect balance or the supreme equilibrium –clearly expressed in the Farewell Discourse—between the fact that the disciples are in the world and the no less certain fact that they do not belong to the world (Jn 17: 11-14). The words of our Lord are as pristine as they are majestic: Christians are in the World, but they are not of the World.

   According to such teachings, there is no doubt that in the presence of the strong meaning of the verb to be, the verb to be in acquires, on the other hand, a merely circumstantial sense; which forces us, via pure logic, to place stress more on the fact that the disciples do not belong to the World, but rather are simply residing in it as if passing it by. A doctrine which, despite its being clearly stated in Scripture (Heb 13:14), causes in the Progressivist Theologies of today not only distaste and scruples, but also scandal and outright rejection.

   Many have, in fact, confused apparent antithesis, such as the famous reconciliation between Faith and Science—two elements which have no need to make peace because they have never been at loggerheads, except in the opinion of some naïve and many ill-willed people—with the opposition between the Christian and the World. A considerable part of the Pastoral policy developed from Vatican II onwards was quite up-front about seeking such a reconciliation, and it had no hesitation about begging the world’s pardon. An attitude about which we are at a loss as to what should astound us more: its gargantuan ignorance or the tininess of a spirit reduced to almost nothing. 

   A brief parenthesis: This phenomenon of asking for pardon, for acts or crimes that belong to past History—and very much so—, most of which are imaginary or fruit of an epoch that has nothing to do with the present age, is one of the symptoms that belie the decomposition that the Catholicism of today is suffering. Aside from the kneeling down before the World spoken of by the French philosopher Maritain, these symptoms clearly reveal a tremendous inferiority complex; not to mention that they suggest also the forgetting of principles and the loss of Faith, constituting an insult to the rest of Catholics, and denote, finally, a profound cowardice.  

   The unsuccessful outcome of this attempt, as one might expect, only confirms that there is a state of permanent enmity, already foretold by our Lord: Behold, I am sending you forth like sheep in the midst of wolves (Mt 10:16); if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before you (Jn 15:18); in the world you will have tribulation; but take courage, I have overcome the world (Jn 16:33). And if any progress has been made, it has been more on the part of Christians letting themselves be sucked into the world, not the reverse; exactly as the Marxist philosopher Gramsci prophesied in his directives about how Marxists should infiltrate all spheres of society.

   The worst part of all this, however, is not the fact that the World does not know Joy. The worst part—indeed, most alarming—, is that Catholicism has practically forgotten it.

   One of the proofs that things are following this course—among the innumerable factors we could bring to the table—, is what is happening in the Liturgy, and especially the Liturgy that takes place in some of the Communities that thrive today and enjoy power within the Catholic realm. In these, the sacred worship given of old to God is now replaced by rites and ceremonies that only foster and flatter purely human sentiments; in reality, this is because more trust is placed in the worship of man, very tangible and self-defining, than in the worship that must be offered to an ethereal God…, of Whom many are assured that they have no idea where He is. The introducion of pop music and popular dancing into the Liturgy, for example, is the evident demonstration that Christian Joy (having supernatural foundations and origins) has given way to the merrymaking, racket, and noise in which purely natural feelings exhaust themselves; noise and rioting that can be anything…, except the joy that roots itself in the heart, one of the most prized fruits of the Holy Spirit. This joy, in turn, is an emulation and a foretaste of the Perfect Joy; but it is impossible to express by way of the concepts and words used by men.