Jn 15:9-11
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Remain in my love! You will remain in my love if you keep my commandments, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.
I have told you all this, that my own joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete.
REFLECTION
In today’s gospel reading, as we just heard, Jesus tells us: “I have told you all this, that my own joy be in you, and your joy may be complete.”
Some Christians go through life keeping, as the British say, “a stiff upper lip,” convinced that the life of a Christian, because it requires constant self-denial, needs to be sustained by a stoic composure. And this they show in their frowning faces, hunched backs, gloomy countenance. Alas, they forget that Jesus wants us to be happy in this life, not just some day in Heaven. As Jesus specified many times: “I came that my sheep have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10). “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (Jn 14:27). “So you have pain now; but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (Jn 16:22). “Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete” (Jn 16:24). “I speak these things in the world so that they (my followers) may have my joy made complete in themselves” (Jn 17:13).
And so, stoic Christians, abandon your frowns and start smiling!
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