One of the messages of Little Brother Marcel Văn CSsR is that of changing sadness into joy.
Little Văn was born in Vietnam in 1928 and, during the Second World War, entered the Redemptorists. He spoke familiarly with Jesus, Mary, and Saint Thérèse, whose spirituality and confidence in childlike relationships with God he made his own. His familiarity with the Church of Heaven really is beautiful.
During his novitiate year, he journeyed towards union in love with God. He was already speaking familiarly with the Church of Heaven, in his boyish way. But he was journeying still. On the journey, he encountered a lot of sadness, wondering why Jesus wasn’t there, or didn’t seem to be there in feeling, for times. But he knew Jesus well enough and with enough simplicity to take the answers he received.
One lesson he learned before, during, and after his novitiate year is that sadness and all that which might lead us to sadness – such as dryness in prayer, desolation, and all that which Saint John of the Cross calls a “dark night” of faith – has a point of teaching us that joy can be everywhere, because Jesus is everywhere. It isn’t the sense consolations that we really want. It is Jesus we really want. We don’t want only his gifts. We want moreover him, his person, his divinity, his joy.
Sadness can be changed into joy. Sadness might remain. But it can be deepened into joy. Joy is greater than sadness. Though our body and the “lower” parts of our soul may rebel or just be weak, the “deepest” part of us can be in joy. Even Jesus on the Cross, abandoned and tortured, had a union with God that was a kind of joy. He commended himself to the Father’s hands, after all. Even among pain, suffering, and torture, there is not a total sadness. There is also joy.
Little Văn was told to change sadness into joy; it was a mission and an understanding of his:
I used to think, that to be holy, to seek perfection meant a life full of charm, like a wonderful springtime… I thought that holiness was perpetual joy without the shadow of sadness. But with time, the more I advance the more I see that sanctity is a life in which it is necessary to change sadness into joy.
This was written a few years after his novitiate. Speaking about events ten years earlier, he said,
I found the most precious treasure of my life at that moment… My soul was transformed in an instant. No longer did I fear suffering. God had confided a mission to me: that of changing suffering into happiness. I had not to suppress it but to change it into happiness.
Or again:
Jesus, nothing is as painful as to be your little friend. However… beside great suffering, indescribable joys are also found.
Or more simply:
Do not be sad and do not be afraid of suffering.
Of course, he doesn’t like suffering. No one likes suffering in itself. It is the value for Jesus, for his Church, and for others that can be happiness and joy.
This is, I think, a universal message. Change sadness into joy! Yes, sadness exists. But speak to Jesus familiarly about it. Be a little boy, be a little girl, and curl up next to him. He is listening, even when we don’t feel as if he is. And to simply know that, because I still want to love Jesus, I can be confident in him and his purposes for my suffering and sadness – if we cannot find joy in this, then we can find it nowhere at all.
Contemplative in the Mud 