Is your joy complete?

5^th Week of Easter (R)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
Kenrick Seminary Chapel

Jesus says to his disciples: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. . .I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete.” This is the latest claim by Jesus about his mission among us. Before this he has claimed to be a sword come to sown division. He has claimed to be the Lamb of God come to be our sacrifice. He has claimed to be the Son of God come to make us children of the Father. He has claimed to be the fulfillment of the Law—Love Himself. And he has claimed: “When you see me, you see the Father also.” Now, with his disciples, he claims to an infusion of joy, that joy so perfect that once infused completes the joy we share as creatures of a mighty God. Let me ask you: is your joy complete?

Peter, standing before the Apostles and priests of the Church, answering those who would burden the Gentiles with the Law, proclaims, “…God, who knows the heart, bore witness by granting [the Gentiles] the Holy Spirit just as he did us.” Fellow Gentiles, we have been granted the Holy Spirit! Now, as spirit-filled men of God, we share unceasingly in the love that the Father has for the Son, the same love that the Father and the Son share with the Spirit. And in His love, we are His sons, heirs to His kingdom. We are made priests, prophets, and kings of a New Covenant, followers behind Christ on the Way.

Peter, chosen by God to bring the Good News to the Gentiles, goes on to argue that, “[God] made no distinction between [the Jews] and [the Gentiles], for by faith he purified [the Gentiles’] hearts.” With our purified hearts, we have enthusiastically received the Holy Spirit, and we now live passionate lives steeped in the boundless love of Love Himself. Living in Love—preaching and teaching the gospel, offering sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving, doing the works that Christ himself did—we rejoice! Or, do we? Let me ask you: is your joy complete?

You can say yes. You can say no. And your answer would be true. If you answer yes, then praise God for His gift and ready yourself to be thrown into the world as a sheep among wolves. If you answer no, then praise God for His gift and ready yourself to be thrown into the world as a sheep among wolves. Ready or not, you will be thrown out, booted out as a living sign that our Father keeps His promises. Your joy—completed or not—must be contagious, infectious, downright unstoppable! Why? Because there is too much at stake for you to waffle, even for a moment, in the work you have to do. The temptation for you is to think that you are not ready. That your joy is imperfect; that your joy is immature, weak before a world firmly held in the power of darkness. And even if this is true, so what? Poison the darkness with the joy you have!

The genuis of the Church is that you—alone, just you—do not have to do the work of Christ by yourself. WE do this work. We, all of us with you, get booted into the dark. And we, all of us with you, call upon the Spirit we have been given to shine out the bright light of Christ. If my joy is incomplete, then I look to you for a donation, a gift of your joy. And if your joy is incomplete, then we both—together—look to the Body for what we need. You see, our gifts do not divide us as a Church. We are not divided by the graces we have received. What divides us is the failure to receive these gifts as gifts and to use them in the single purpose, the unique spirit that they are given. Yes, my gifts, used for the work of Christ, perfect me. And you yours. But our imperfect use of these gifts finds its perfection in the love of God for us. I do not “have a role in the Church.” Nor do you. I do not “function in the Church.” Nor do you. My role, my function, your role, your function are all merely mechanical, merely utilitarian. They are not who we are in the Church. It is when we look to the Body for her love, for her servant spirit and when we are fundamentally motivated by that love and spirit that our jobs are transfigured from “church work” to the Work of God.

Is your joy complete? Yes? Praise God! No? Praise God! Do His will and your imperfection will be made perfect. In his address to this country’s young people and seminarians, our Holy Father says, “At times…we are tempted to close in on ourselves, to doubt the strength of Christ’s radiance, to limit the horizon of hope. Take courage!. . .Authentic Christian discipleship is marked by a sense of wonder. We stand before the God we know and love as a friend, the vastness of his creation, and the beauty of our Christian faith.” Surely, brothers, standing in awe before an empty cross and tomb, our joy is complete!

Pic credit: Roi James