"THAT MY JOY MAY BE IN YOU . . . "

Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year B; John 15: 9-17.

AIM: To show the hearers the way to Christian joy.

Was Jesus a joyful person? Or was he sad and serious? The gospels show us that he was both: serious, even sad, when that was appropriate; yet so filled with joy that he could say, in today=s gospel: AI have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete.@

What gave Jesus joy? The beauties of nature, surely. Which one of us has never rejoiced at a beautiful sunset? Is it conceivable that Jesus too did not rejoice in the beauties of nature? He had a special reason for joy that we cannot have: the knowledge that everything he saw, heard, and felt C the wind in his hair, the warm sun on his face and bare arm, the beauties of mountain, field, forest, and sea C that it all came from the hand of the One whom he called by that intimate word: Abba C which in Jesus= language means not just father but Daddy.

How Jesus must have rejoiced when little children clamored to be taken into his arms, or climbed onto his lap. And what joy he must have felt when he healed people: to see the cripple walking, the bent woman standing up straight, the blind seeing for the first time the beauties of the world all round them and the faces of those they had previously known only by touch and the sound of their voices. 

The deepest source of Jesus= joy, however, was his relationship with his heavenly Father. At every moment of his life, in every circumstance, Jesus knew that he was deeply loved by his Father C that he was, as we might say, the apple of his Father=s eye. Every day Jesus realized anew that wherever he might go that day, with whomever he spoke, in whatever situation he might find himself, he remained in his Father=s loving embrace. 

Jesus= consciousness of a special relationship with his heavenly Father started early. We see evidence of it when the twelve-year-old boy stayed behind in Jerusalem in order (as he told his parents after their three-day frantic search), Athat I might be in my Father=s house@ or as some translations have it, Aabout my Father=s business@ (Lk 2:49). Not even Jesus= anguished cry on the cross, AMy God, my God, why have you forsaken me?@ broke Jesus= awareness of his Father=s love and care.  Jesus was speaking the first words of Psalm 22, an anguished prayer for help in suffering. The psalm concludes with an affirmation of faith in God: AYou who fear the Lord, praise him ... For he has not spurned ... the wretched man in his misery ... but when he cried out to him, he heard him...@ In speaking the psalm=s opening words, Jesus was affirming also those final words of trust in God=s protection. Even amid the pains of a horrible death, Jesus knew that his Father continued to care for him. 

Jesus= greatest joy of all came after his resurrection. Raised now to a new higher form of life, Jesus was free from earthly limitations: he could appear even behind locked doors. Imagine the joy Jesus must have experienced at seeing the expressions of shocked disbelief on the faces of his frightened friends C soon turning to exultant jubilation as they realized it was truly the Master they had known and loved, gloriously alive again, victorious over our last enemy: death. 

We all like to surprise people. What fun those resurrection appearances must have been for Jesus; joyful for his friends, and even more joyful for him!  

Jesus wants us to have this joy too. He tells us this in today=s gospel: AI have told you this that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete.@ What is he telling us? Two things: first, that he loves us, as the Father loves him. AAs the Father loves me, so I love you.@ Was that just long ago and far away?  Don=t you believe it!  Jesus is speaking these words right now C to you!

Second, Jesus tells us: ARemain in my love.@ How? Jesus explains at once: AIf you keep my commandments you will remain in my love.@ What is the commandment above all that Jesus is talking about? He tells us in the words that immediately follow: AThis is my commandment: love one another as I love you.@  Jesus goes on to explain the kind of love he is talking about: not a warm feeling inside, but a costly love which gives and goes on giving. ANo one has greater love than this, to lay down one=s life for one=s friends.@ That is what Jesus did for us.  That is what he asks us to do for one another. 

Let me give you an example. A married woman I know, not in our parish, decided over twenty years ago, when her first child was born, to give up the rewarding professional career for which she had spent years preparing. She would devote herself full-time to motherhood. Many women in today=s society cannot afford that choice. She could, and did. In some quarters that is called Astaying at home and baking cookies@, and looked down on as a cop-out. This mother thought of it not as a cop-out but as a sacrifice C but a sacrifice she was glad to make.

She is the mother today of three children, now adults, that many parents would kill for. On Valentine=s Day, years ago, her then 18-year-old son presented his mother and younger sister with a dozen red roses. He had bought them out of his allowance. Where does a high-school senior get the idea of making a sacrifice like that? I can tell you where this young man got it: from his mother. Her decision decades ago to forego the prestige of a professional career, and the second income it would have brought, in order to work full-time at the arduous task of motherhood was a real laying down of her life for others. As Jesus promised, that sacrifice has brought joy: to her, to her husband, to the children God has given them. The son who presented the roses is a graduate of the Naval Academy in Annapolis and now a captain in the Marines. His older brother is a graduate of a college that accepts less than seven percent of applicants for admission.    

There are many other examples of this laying down one=s life for others.  We have them right here in our parish. You can tell these people by the joy on their faces C the joy which Jesus promised when he told us that he wanted his joy to be ours. 

More than half a century ago a wise and holy Englishwoman named Evelyn Underhill wrote about joy as follows:

This is the secret of joy. We shall no longer strive for our own way; but commit ourselves, easily and simply, to God=s way, acquiesce in his will and in so doing find our peace. 

There are people here today who have experienced the truth of those words.  If you are not yet one of them, Jesus Christ is inviting you to begin C right now!