People formed by the Lord - as people of change!

WORD 2day - Thursday, Sixth week in the Eastertide

May 09, 2024: Acts 18: 1-8; John 16: 16-20

The says it directly today in the Word - I am going away. But he immediately adds, that it should not be a motive for sorrow, but a reason for joy because, having gone, he promises, that he would send us the Spirit. When the Spirit comes you shall see that your sorrow shall change into joy, your tears shall change into smiles... yes, they will change, but how? 

Let us consider that question: how will it change? You sorrow shall turn into joy - this is one of the themes preached far and wide... but no one wants to discuss in detail or in depth, how it will happen? How will the sorrow change into joy? Does that mean we will have nothing for which there will be a tear in our eyes? Does that mean a kind of "prosperity" and "sufficiency" that we consider so naively as the "blessing" from above?

Yes, the sorrow will change into joy, the tears will change into laughter, hardships will change into launchpads for success... but when? When our hearts and our selves change! No one wants to hear that. We do not want to change an inch, but we wish everything around us to change and become a paradise on earth; we do not want to convert ourselves, but whine and wimper that the situation around us should radically change and become good and pleasant! How mean of us!

We see in the first reading, the tough situations that the apostles faced with the hardhearted people. How they themselves gave a tough time to Jesus who was trying to impress some things in their hearts, is an important fact to consider here. But however, they changed... who was the cause of that change - the Spirit. It is the same Spirit who would make those people gradually, although slowly, change and convert.

The prayer that we need to make today is that we be docile to the Spirit, who has been given unto us, who lives within us, and realise the facets we need to change in our lives. The Lord wishes to form us, through the Spirit, as people of change - let us repent and believe in the Gospel!