At this week’s General Audience, Pope Francis spoke about changing sadness into joy, which is a theme rooted in the Gospel message and in the tradition, but which, as Marcel Văn teaches, is especially dear to survivors as a form of resilience. I didn’t see this coming, but I guess if Pope Francis is going to keep talking about contemplation, he might as well use one of my dear little Văn’s catchphrases, too. Why not!

I usually make a point to read things as they appear on the Vatican website—at least by skimming through. But in this case, the General Audience initially caught my eye on the papal Twitter/X account. This quote was posted:

There is a form of sorrow that is part of our conversion and can be transformed into joy with God’s grace. But another kind of sadness makes the soul despondent. This second kind of sadness must be fought with all our strength, because it comes from the evil one.

Of course, this sent me quickly running to the full text published on the Vatican website. There, we get this version:

First and foremost, it must be noted that, with regard to sorrow, the Fathers drew an important distinction: it is this. There is, in fact, a sorrow that is appropriate to Christian life, and that with God’s grace can be changed into joy: obviously, this must not be rejected and forms part of the path of conversion. But there is a second type of sorrow that creeps into the soul and prostrates it in a state of despondency: it is this second kind of sorrow that must be fought, resolutely and with every strength, because it comes from the evil one. This distinction is found also in Saint Paul, who wrote to the Corinthians: “Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death” (2 Cor 7:10).

In the address, the Pope goes on to discuss despondency as a theme developed in the desert Fathers, particularly Evagrius of Pontus.[1] He remarks that sorrow is a natural emotion. It can’t be eliminated. But it must be fought when it can’t be transformed, and transformed into joy where it can be.

In fact, our personal history is bound up in this: “There is something in everyone’s past that needs to be healed.” I sense here a particular closeness to Marcel’s story. For him, changing sadness into joy was the mission that he understood himself to have in response to years of abuse. That needn’t be the reason for a Christian to change suffering into happiness. The reasons are as many as Christian lives. But it is one reason, and it’s an example of what Pope Francis speaks of: “something in [each person’s] past that needs to be healed.”

I’d also like to draw attention to one final thing. Towards the end of the General Audience, the Holy Father quotes the nineteenth-century French novelist Léon Bloy, godfather of Jacques and Raïssa Maritain, as he has done before (cf. Gaudete et Exsultate 34)[2]: “There is only one sadness, […] that of not being holy.” Here we have it. This is the meaning of changing sadness into joy. It’s a Christian meaning. Since I knew this quote through the Maritains, in that sense, Marcel Văn’s favourite theme was never a big surprise to me, though his emphasis on processes, not states, was certainly a welcome approach. I guess Pope Francis knows Bloy through someone, too. He runs in the right circles, after all.

If you haven’t yet read this week’s General Audience, you may like to take some time this weekend to do so. I was glad I did.

[1] Recommended reading on this: Gabriel Bunge, Despondency: The Spiritual Teaching of Evagrius Ponticus on Acedia (Yonkers, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2011). There are considerable links noted to resilience and to joy. I have found the reflections useful. I find it especially noteworthy for how far back this puts the roots into which Văn is tapping. Bunge of course doesn’t discuss Marcel. These are my own comparisons and conclusions.

[2] Note that the English text of the apostolic exhortation mistranslates as “the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint,” but the French original is “il n’y a qu’une tristesse, c’est de n’être pas des saints.” The translation for this week’s General Audience is better.