...and that your joy may be complete



"I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete". (John 15. 11)

Joy and happiness are wonderful feelings to experience but are very different. Joy is consistent and is cultivated internally. It comes when you make peace with who you are, why you are and how you are, whereas happiness tends to be externally triggered and is based on other people, things, places, thoughts, and events.

As Christians, we seek joy and we know that complete joy is achieved only through Christ. In today’s reading, Jesus tells us that he loves us. He calls us his friends. That love and that friendship provide us with a great sense of identity. It’s not an accident that you are here today. You have a purpose in your life. You are a child of. God loves you and you are a friend of Jesus.

This premise – of God’s immense love for humanity and Jesus' invitation for friendship, is the foundation on which you can cultivate a life of joy and peace. Joy is not some catchy term that you hear around Christmas time but it's the conscious choice of finding meaning to our existence. God has created us to be happy by abiding in him. So when we choose our way over his, we are going against our very nature. We are disrupting the flow of love that sustains us and gives us such joy. 

Yours,
Fr. Nareg

Read the Word of God. Today's readings are: Wisdom 3:11-17; Isaiah 51:22-52:3; 1 Thessalonians 2:13-16; John 15:11-16

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 25, 2019 at 9:24 AM

    I liked your take on joy and happiness. Never thought about that - it's a food for thought. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Then and Now

Image
Today we read the parable of the sower. This is one of the parables of Jesus that has been imprinted in my mind since early childhood. And sometimes when you know something then you think you know it. There is no need to revisit right? Not always! Let's look at the biblical text:  “A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell on the path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered for lack of moisture. Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. Some fell into good soil, and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold.”  (Luke 8: 5-8) It is clear that Jesus creates 4 categories in this parable. My first way of internalizing the message of this parable was creating categories: The Word of God grows depending on the kind of soil your heart is. and those categories are almost permanent. My more mature sense of spirituality helped me shift my focus from "the kind of soil
Read more

… for the least among all of you is the greatest (Luke 9:48).

Image
  … for the least among all of you is the greatest. Jesus predicts his passion and crucifixion. His disciples could not perceive it and fear prevents them from asking Jesus any questions. To deflect the conversation they start arguing as to which one of them was the greatest. The disciples haven’t yet learned the lesson of reversal expressed in the Magnificat (1:46-55) and the beatitudes (6:20-49). Jesus corrects them with an illustration, as he places a child next to him. The one who receives such lowly and weak members of the society receives Jesus and the Father who sent Him. Moreover, becoming the least through service of others is the true indicator of who is greatest.  Becoming the least makes us  rely not on our own resources but it’s a deep spiritual insight of our ultimate dependency on God. Only when we recognize this dependency we can open ourselves to hear the call of God.
Read more

Instruments for Special Purposes

Image
The 2 readings on today’s liturgical calendar are deeply interconnected.   In his 2nd letter to Timothy, St. Paul describes our human condition through the analogy of household articles; some made with gold and silver and others made with wood and clay. Similarly, each one of us has parts of our character that we are proud of and others that we are ashamed of. We may have some habits that reflect our maturity and other habits that expose our inner conflicts and struggles. St. Paul exhorts his disciple Timothy and all Christians to engage in the act of self-cleansing to become “instruments for special purposes”. Self-cleansing to St. Paul consists of fleeing the evil desires of youth and pursuing righteousness, faith, love, and peace. Not engaging in foolish and stupid arguments and quarrels and n ot being resentful.  In other words, self-discipline is the first step towards change. Self-transformation happens when we identify the bad clusters of our being and repl
Read more