MORNING MEDITATION

Friday, Sixth Week of Easter

Acts 18:9-18

Paul continued to encounter many difficulties, oppositions and persecutions. He was brought to trial, but the judge saw it as a political trial and discontinued hearing. The Lord continued to bless him on his journey with many who supported him and gifted him with courage to proclaim the good news.

Be faithful to your calling even in times of trials!

Psalm 47

All you peoples, clap your hands,

Shout to God with cries of gladness,

For the Lord, the most high, the awesome,

is the great king over all the earth.

John 16:20-23

In this Gospel passage Jesus describes the experience of the disciples at his leaving them in terms of childbirth. The process requires time and patient endurance, but the result will be the joy that will never be taken away. The joy the world gives is at the mercy of the world. The joy Christ gives is independent of anything the world can offer. The joy which Christ gives is complete, enduring, pure, unmixed, and perfect. The world's joy is incomplete, wears out and passes away.

In Christian joy, the pain which went before is forgotten. If a person's fidelity costs much, he/she will forget the cost in lasting joy. There will be fullness of knowledge. Jesus says, "you will not need to ask any more questions". There are always unanswered questions, unsolved problems, and uncertain future. But there is fullness of knowledge in Christ. In Christ you come to know yourself fully, you come to know humanity in its fullness and you come to know God as God is. Our knowledge is fragmented. In Christ fragmented knowledge finds unity and integrity and wholeness.

In Christ we have a new relationship with God because we know God as God is, we know the heart of God, we know the heart of Love. In this relationship, Jesus says, we may ask anything and are sure to get it. Our knowledge is complete and our joy is full and pure and indestructible.

Being Steadfast:   Be steadfast now, in this moment. This moment will not return!

Fr. Gus Tharappel, msfs