THE WORD BECAME FLESH

Friday of the Sixth Week of Easter, 2022

Acts 18:9-18

Ps 47

John 16:20-23

No one will take your joy away from you 

One of the greatest human joys is the birth of a child. The joy of the child’s father and mother at the moment of birth has a unique quality about it. For the mother, the trials and labors of pregnancy and childbirth are forgotten, momentarily at least, when her child is born and she looks upon him or her for the first time. 

When Jesus looked for a human experience of joy that captured something of the joy of his resurrection, it was to the joy of childbirth that he turned. In this morning’s gospel reading (Jn 16:20-23), Jesus speaks in the awareness of the deep sorrow that his disciples are experiencing at his forthcoming death, ‘you will be weeping and wailing... you will be sorrowful’. His death which was to happen on the following day would be a truly traumatic and devastating experience for them. Jesus acknowledges that dark reality, but he also looks beyond that painful experience of his death to the wonderful event of his resurrection, and he assures his disciples that their sorrow will turn to joy. They will experience a joy akin to the joy of a mother at the birth of her child. New life, in whatever form, is always a cause of joy. We are destined to share in the Lord’s new life, his risen life, beyond death, when our joy will be complete. Yet, Jesus assures his disciples and us that we can begin to taste something of that joy here and now because the risen Lord sees us, and is present to us. 

Insofar as we are open to his presence and take to heart the Lord’s words to Saint Paul in the first reading (Acts 18:9-18), ‘I am with you, we will begin to experience something of that heavenly joy that awaits us.

Let us pray: Lord Jesus, we are an Easter people, and alleluia is our song. Fill us with your Holy Spirit that we may radiate the joy of your resurrection and live in the reality of your great victory over sin and death. Amen.

+Remain blessed