By Lisa Benoit

“What is the keynote message of Christianity?” syndicated columnist Father John Catoir asked his evening audience gathered in Manoa’s St. Pius X Church on Jan. 14.

Though the visiting priest’s talk was billed, “Joyfully living the Gospel Day by Day,” no one among the 125 listeners offered the correct answer — “joy.”

“Isn’t it interesting?” Father Catoir said.

He assured them that the Hawaii audience wasn’t alone. The former director of the multi-media apostolate The Christophers gives talks around the world to lay people, priests, sisters and even bishops. Most do not identify “joy” as a central point of the Gospel.

With an accent that hinted of his New York roots and the charm and energy of a seasoned media professional, Father Catoir quoted Scripture, Pope John Paul II, Thomas Aquinas, famous mystics, and the co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement Dorothy Day to prove his point — Christ came to bring joy.

Of course, he also used the words of Jesus himself.

“After the great prayer, after the Last Supper, just before he was taken to be beaten and crucified, he said, ‘I told you these things that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full,’” the priest said.

“We Catholics are not conditioned to seek joy as the central message of Christianity and the way in which we can please God the most,” he said. “I don’t know what happened. I almost feel like I am leading a minor revolution by simply putting the words of Jesus in the correct order.”

And what about “love”?

“Love and joy are two sides of the same coin,” Father Catoir said.

Father Marc Alexander, pastor of the Manoa-Punahou Catholic Community that sponsored the talk, said that Father Catoir’s message was “received very positively.”

For Ester Gefroh, seeing Father Catoir was a reunion of sorts. The Sacred Heart, Punahou, parishioner was a member of Father Catoir’s New Jersey parish when she was about 10 years old. Father Catoir, 72, has been a priest of the Diocese of Paterson, N.J., since 1964.

She remembers him for a particular act of kindness many years ago. Her very young sister had begun singing the “Alleluia” during a Lenten Mass, a liturgical faux pas. Sensing the child’s imminent embarrassment, Father Catoir joined right in and soon had the whole congregation singing “Alleluia.”

“My mother says it quite plainly,” Gefroh said. “He is a holy priest. He touches your heart when you read his column.”

Gefroh has been following the priest’s television, radio and writing career for many years, ever since she saw a segment of his Christophers TV program, “Light One Candle.”

“I felt like he was talking to me personally,” she said.

“I am one of those people who cannot concentrate when I pray,” Gefroh said. Father Catoir’s book of daily meditations on joy has helped her.

Joy isn’t automatic, Father Catoir told his Friday night lecture crowd.

“It involves a decision,” he said. “There has to be faith that God is love.”

It is more than “knowing” God loves you; it is “appreciating” God’s love. “That is bigger, more broad, more deep.”

Father Catoir said that the Gospel’s central theme is summarized in the Beatitudes — Jesus’ eloquent assurance that all people are loved and that God favors those at their lowest point.

Another related recurring Gospel theme is “Do not be afraid,” which Father Catoir said is repeated 365 times.

In order to live joyfully, Father Catoir told the audience that they must cancel out the gloom in their lives.

“You have to make a decision that you are not going to be a complainer, that you are not going to spiral into negativity and see the worst in others,” he said. “You are going to look for the best.”

The best “training” for this is prayer, he said.

Pure prayer is not in the emotions, he said, but in the will.

It is giving yourself to God “with some serious sincerity,” he said. “You cannot do any better than doing that.”

Prayer does not have to take any specific length of time — it can take only seconds — but “the only way to pray well is to pray often.”

Reconciliation is also essential, he said. “Don’t let the past drag you down. Get to confession. Say you’re sorry. Renew your good intentions.”

Father Catoir said that Dorothy Day, who fed the poor and homeless in New York City for more than 31 years and is a candidate for sainthood, called joy “the duty of delight.”

Father Alexander said that the message of joy has helped his own spiritual and prayer life.

“I always try to find joy in my own life and to make sure than I model that for other people,” he said. “Because if our faith isn’t joy-filled and our ministers are not joy-filled, then who is going to join?”

Salvation, joy and the Good News are not compatible with “moping around with long faces,” he said.