Dodging Joy

Standing at the hotel bar in Puerto Rico, we could hardly hear any of Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl half-time performance, but we could see the joy. I watched as the young bartender turned away from the screen where she had stood mesmerized, wiping the tears streaming down her face so that she could return to her work. The reaction on social media was just as strong: This is joy as an act of resistance. This is the future of unity and hope that we want to live in. This is good news.

Of course, not everyone reacted so positively. Many of those who rejected the premise of a Spanish-language star were not won over despite the exuberant performance. The giant billboard behind Bad Bunny proclaiming “The only thing stronger than hate is love” notwithstanding, some folks did not see anything to celebrate.

I thought about this when I read our gospel passage,* in which Jesus gave a blind man sight – an occasion many people would find worthy of celebration. But others saw an affront to their way of doing things and they bent over backwards not to see the good news. They questioned, they accused, they pestered, they maligned – they did everything to avoid joining the man in his joy and belief.

In a troubled world, it can be tempting to reject what we do not understand, to stay safe in our knowledge of right and wrong, to draw clear lines of what is and isn’t done. But that clarity sometimes comes at a price. I don’t want to reject opportunities for joy because they don’t fit my expectations. I don’t want to be a person who bends over backwards not to see the good news. I do want to connect with beauty, truth, kindness – life! – even if they come to me by way of people I do not like or in forms I do not trust. That is, I want to be more like Jesus.