A joy that is complete!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 5th week of Easter

May 6, 2021: Acts 15: 7-21; John 15: 9-11

The ultimate wish of the Lord is our joy, not a joy as that which the world promises, but a joy that is complete, wholesome, flawless. The so-called joy that the world gives is conditional, limited and time bound. It lasts for a while and leaves a vacuum when it disappears due to some reason. It comes from what we do, what we achieve, what we prove to the world...after the noise of the celebrations are over, the emptiness is back, the meaninglessness resumes and everything rests in its precariety. Isn't this the reason we find some unexpected persons, like those who have been success stories and celebrities, deciding to end their lives themselves because they found it unbearable?

The joy that the Lord gives comes from what we are; it comes from the fact that we are loved, that we are accepted unconditionally and that we are united to the One who never changes! It does not come from what we do, what we observe as obligation or what we put up as our appearance. This is what the first Christians, led by the apostles, understood as one of the first lessons of being the People of God. 

The Christian Community understood from theSpirit of the Risen Lord, that  it is not the various rules and regulations that we uphold that truly matter but love! Love is all that matters! Knowing how much the Lord has loved us, and knowing how much we are indebted to that love; knowing how unconditionally we have been accepted by the Lord and knowing the folly of the conditions that we place for loving others; knowing how close the Lord is to us every moment of our lives, and knowing how we tend to remain so far away from the Lord in our thought, word and deed! It is in knowing that love, accepting that love and responding to that love wholeheartedly that we can find our true joy, a joy that is complete!