predication.net

You have girded me with joy» Ps 30, 12.

Christianity, a religion of joy, is so because it shares in the joy that resides in the Holy Trinity. Joy is the very air that permeates God. We often describe God as mercy, love, and peace. In certain life circumstances, we can grasp these divine attributes with our hearts. We may experience the paternal goodness of God, who attends to our personal needs, or the mercy of Jesus Christ, who forgives our sins.

To enjoy joy, we must immerse ourselves in the atmosphere of the Holy Trinity. May God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit experience complete and perfect joy together thanks to the love with which they love each other. The ideal love in God results from the mutual self-giving of the persons of the Holy Trinity. Because as soon as there is a gift, there is potential joy. In God, this gift is complete, so his happiness is total. The Father is the joy of his Son when he gives himself entirely to him. The Son is the joy of his Father when he also gives himself entirely to him. They are each other’s joy. And to imagine it, we can say that the explosion of love between them is the person of the Holy Spirit.

Despite the noble doctrine, the Holy Scriptures do not despise the simple joys of life. He knows the joy of a rich harvest or vintage, the pleasure that we are among brothers and can glorify God together, the joy of the birth of a child, the joy that springs from the admiration of creation. Perhaps we are unaware of it, so the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s statement still applies: “You all seem to me to be a little redeemed.”

Christian joy presupposes a person capable of naturally rejoicing. Human joys are pleasing to God. Remember to offer him them to purify, sanctify, and intensify them. However, the discovery of true joy presupposes that we will be able to advance higher, not stop at the horizontal level of the joys offered, but that we will find a vertical direction in them.

Christian joy, being primarily spiritual, naturally extends to all natural and emotional joys. It is this spiritual joy that transforms natural joys into true joys of the human heart. However, one who fixates on human pleasures, no matter how uplifting, without seeking to connect them with their source, merely confirms their fleeting nature. Their quest for authentic joy will remain unfulfilled.

Man, a being driven by desire, is capable of experiencing joy. He cannot exist without it and seeks it with all his might. Often, the pursuit of joy and happiness inspires his actions and life choices. Yet, man is fundamentally a spiritual being. God designed him to live in communion with him; thus, no joy of this world can fully satisfy him. His heart will find true fulfillment only when he receives the joy the world cannot offer, but God freely gives it to those seeking it.

God the Father draws us to Jesus …

WHEN JESUS ​​announced in the Capernaum synagogue that he was the bread of life, those present asked with understandable human logic: “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?” So how does he say: I have come down from Heaven.” (Jn 6, 42). The Lord immediately responded and explained: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (Jn 6:44).

This passage introduces us “to the dynamics of faith, which is a relationship: a relationship between the human person and the person of Jesus, where the Father plays a decisive role and, naturally, the Holy Spirit, who is implicit. To believe in Jesus it is not enough just to meet him. It is not enough to just read the Bible. It is important, but it is not enough. It is not even enough to witness a miracle such as the multiplication of loaves. Many people were in close contact with Jesus and did not believe in him. They despised him and condemned him. Why? Wasn’t the Father attracted to them? It happened because their hearts were closed to the action of God’s Spirit. If we have a closed heart, faith will not enter it. God the Father always draws us to Jesus. It is we who open or close our hearts”.

The Father also draws us to his Son to learn from him and give him all the glory. This mission requires us always to try to be close to Jesus, shaped by him, and be his disciples. “Faith, which is like a seed deep in the heart, will blossom when we let the Father draw us to Jesus and we go to him with an open mind, with an open heart, without prejudices: then we recognize God’s face in his face and God’s word in his words. “Asking for the bread of life … 

SEEING GOD and meditating on him throughout the day is not an impossible goal. On the contrary, it is a promise we can achieve in different ways thanks to Jesus. The same God who put in our hearts the desire for eternity remained in the Eucharist to be always with us. Our passion for eternal love is best satisfied in Christ present in the Eucharist. We can dialogue with him in prayer, visit him in the Tabernacle, and listen to his words in the Gospel. Jesus gradually becomes our best friend, and we can ask the Father for anything in his name: “If we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, the Father will fulfill it for us; be sure of that. Prayer has always been a secret, a powerful weapon (…). Prayer is the basis of our peace”.

In this impulse of prayer, Jesus taught us to ask for this “bread of life” for this food of eternity. “Your fathers ate manna in the desert and died” (Jn 6:49), says Christ and compares himself to the food that God sent through the intercession of Moses. He points out that while the former was transitory, the Eucharist is the eternal bread; it is not an ordinary memory, but a memory, a present, as we pray in all the Eucharistic prayers and some hymns: O memoriale mortis Domini! Panis vivus, vitam praestans homini![4] “Oh, the memory of the death of Christ Jesus, our living bread, the highest sweetness of the world, grant that my spirit may always feed only on you!”. The Eucharist looks not only to the past but also to the present and the future. Our passage on earth is a pilgrimage from Eucharist to definitive participation in the heavenly banquet. “Every time the Church celebrates the Eucharist, she remembers this promise, and her gaze is directed towards the one who is to come (Revelation 1, 4)”.

“In days full of busyness and problems, but also in days of rest and relaxation, the Lord invites us not to forget that although it is necessary to take care of material bread and gain new strength, it is even more important to grow in our relationship with him, to strengthen our faith in of the one who is the bread of life, which fulfills our desire for truth and love.”The Eucharist fills us with hope…

JESUS ​​PROMISES US divine food that will always be available to us “so that no one who eats it dies” (John 6:50). Thanks to this travel document, we can believe that if we are faithful, our calling to eternal life will become a reality. Thus, God himself fills us with hope, that “theological virtue by which we long for eternal life as our happiness and expect it from God. In doing so, we place our trust in Christ’s promises and rely on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit to earn eternal life and persevere until the end of earthly life”.

Jesus concludes his sermon in the synagogue by repeating the central message of the entire speech: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.” Whoever eats this bread will live forever. Moreover, the bread that I will give is my body for the life of the world” (Jn 6, 51). The Lord promises us the unimaginable: fellowship in his own life for all eternity. This hope, though it finds its fullness in Heaven, illuminates our steps here on earth. This hope “also tells us that our daily actions have a meaning that goes beyond what we immediately see: as St. Josemaría affirmed, they acquire the vibration of eternity if we do them out of love for God and others.”

All this fills us with optimism as we realize that God is always close to us. Christian joy is based on this divine promise that we will live with him forever. For this reason, tradition calls the Eucharist “the promise of future glory” because it strengthens us on the journey of our earthly life and awakens in us the desire for eternal life; it unites us with Christ, the Virgin Mary, and all the saints.

In recent years, more and more people have given gifts in the form of a future experience. Aging parents often say that they don’t need anything anymore and that they have everything. 

Children are wondering how to surprise them, and in the era of active retirees, there is nothing better than trips or stays in spas. On their old knees, fathers, and mothers can get to know a piece of the world or experience procedures they once perceived as a waste of time or an unnecessary luxury.

We are hunters of experiences. Today, even people in rural areas have several options for spending their free time. In the past, the church was the only meeting place and culture for many. Nowadays, the competition is enormous. People travel a lot, go on trips, and attend cultural, sports, or social events. They always want to experience and hear something new. They want to witness.By the way, testimony. Excellent food can be described royally until our saliva flows. However, nothing compares to its consumption. There is a big difference between telling a tasty morsel and experiencing it personally with all the senses.

There is no match for a witness. His strong emotions will somehow transfer to us if he has experienced and described something well. We will desire, be angry, or Love the same way because we believe in him. The witness motivates us to be brave or to be afraid when necessary. From the words of the witness, we know whether something is worthwhile or not.

When talking about doubts Jesus’s resurrection, everyone thinks of the apostle Thomas, who refused to believe until he had his own experience. Interestingly, the others were no different. They were also afraid, disappointed, and frustrated. 

The Risen Lord appeared to them so that they would believe and become witnesses. They would not move forward without this personal encounter with the Risen One. Seeing him alive after death was an experience, not only because they had never seen a man who rose from the dead before. The experience was less to see and touch than the meeting itself. 

The Risen Lord was not supposed to be a sensation for anyone, which they could brag about for the rest of their lives, but a foundation of faith, without which nothing in the future would have any meaning.

The apostles talked with him and heard his words and messages so they could be convinced that this Jesus, whom they saw dragging the cross to Golgotha and undoubtedly dying on it, was alive. He is the victor over sin and death, asking those who meet him to bear witness to him, as he said to them: “You shall be my witnesses.”

And they were. Being (almost) the sole bearer of an idea and wanting to convince others about it requires guts and strong motivation. How could these simple people think of spreading the message of Jesus in the world at that time? 

After all that, we would instead expect a return home and a desire to forget the fiasco. The gospel’s spread from the beginning is the best proof that they met the resurrected Jesus. And that the meeting was an experience that marked them for the rest of their lives.

Meeting the Undead is not a one-time emotion you smoke off your list of exclusive things you’ve experienced.

I wish we all had such experiences. An encounter with the resurrected Lord that would shake us. This is an experience to be desired and should be given to everyone. It is not a one-time emotion you smoke on the list of exclusive things you have experienced. 

Meeting the resurrected Jesus is an experience precisely because he answers all our deepest desires for Love, truth, unity, or goodness. It is optional to know everything or understand everything. Reasonable arguments with logic lose power compared to faith in Christ, overcoming the world and bringing peace. 

An internally true and courageous person in such a situation will not find a better solution than to give up and be overcome by Love, which, instead of us, accepted and defeated evil with all its power and in all its forms. This will save us.

I believe that every sincere Christian has met the Risen One, not only in the gift of the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist but also in those rare and unrepeatable moments of perception of God’s presence, which have become for us a supporting wall of nascent hope or joy.

Jesus asked the apostles to witness what they had experienced with him. We believe their testimony and add ours to it. And so, our life full of banalities is also a place of unexpected experiences of meeting the Light when the soul understands and transforms us into witnesses. 

A brave witness who is not afraid to come out of himself, not afraid to live. It’s a foretaste of what’s to come—the experience of meeting in eternity so that our life and our joy are complete.

Theophilus of Antioch says. If you tell me, show me your God, I will tell you. Show me your soul, and I will show you my God. Show me if the eyes of thy soul are not blind, if the ears of thy heart hear. Those with sound bodily eyes know how to distinguish an object from the object, light from darkness, white from black, and ugly from beautiful. Likewise, the ears, when they are sound, discern sounds.
In the same way, our spiritual eyes and ears must be sound so that we may see and hear God. God will show Himself to those who can see Him, that is, who have their eyes open. All can see the sunlight. But it does not mean it does not shine if they do not see the sun. If the blind do not see the sun, let them not blame the sun but their eyes. Therefore, if your eyes are covered with sins and evil deeds, blame yourself also. The soul must be kept clean as a mirror. If the mirror is dirty, you cannot see your face.
Similarly, man cannot look at God if a man has sinned. See if you are not fornicating, adulterous, stealing and cursing, poisonous and envious, honoring your parents, for God will not reveal Himself to those who do these things until they are rid of their sins. But you can be cured if you want. Surrender to the physician. Let him heal the eyes of your soul and heart. Who is the physician? It is God. He gives health and life through His word and His wisdom. If you understand this and live purely holy and righteous, then you will be able to see God.

The people who listened to Jesus throughout the day and then had this grace of multiplying the loaves and saw the power of Jesus wanted to make him king. At first, they went to Jesus to listen to his words and ask for the healing of the sick. They stayed to listen to Jesus all day without getting bored or tired, but they were there, happy. But then, when they saw that Jesus gave them food, which they did not expect, they thought: “This would be a good ruler for us, and he will certainly be able to deliver us from the power of the Romans and lead the country forward.” And they were excited to make him king. Their intention changed because they saw and reasoned like this: “Well, a man who does such a miracle, that he feeds the people, can be a good ruler” (cf. Jn 6:1-15). At that moment, however, they forgot the enthusiasm that the word of Jesus caused in their hearts.

Jesus withdrew and went to pray (v. 15). Those people stayed there, and the next day, they looked for Jesus because they said to themselves: “he must be here somewhere,” because they saw that he did not get into the boat with the others, and there was only one boat left… (cf. Jn 6,22-24). However, they did not know Jesus overtook the others walking on the water. And so they decided to go to the other side of the Sea of ​​Tiberias to look for Jesus. When they see him, the first thing they say to him is the words: “Teacher, when did you come here?” (v. 25), as if saying: “We do not understand; it seems strange.”

And Jesus returns them to that first feeling, to the one they had before the multiplication of the loaves, when they listened to God’s word: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me not because ye saw the signs” – as at the beginning, the signs of the word which they rejoiced, the signs of healing – not because you saw the signs, “but because you ate of the loaves and were filled” (v. 26). Jesus reveals their intention and says: “It is like this, you have changed your attitude.” And they, instead of apologizing, “No Lord, it’s not…”, were humble. Jesus continues: «Do not seek the food that perishes, but the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. Because the Father, God, marked him with his seal” (John 6:27). And they, the good ones, say to him: “What must we do to do the works of God?” – “Believe in the Son of God” (cf. v. 29).

This is the case in which Jesus corrects the attitude of the people, the crowd, because they moved away from that first moment, from the first spiritual consolation, and took a path that was not right, more worldly than evangelical. This forces us to think about how many times in our lives we start the journey of following Jesus, following Jesus, with gospel values, and halfway through, another thought occurs to us: we notice some sign and move away, adapting to something temporary, something more material, perhaps more worldly, and we lose the memory of that first enthusiasm we had when we heard Jesus speak.

Jesus always brings us back to that first moment in which he looked at us, spoke to us, and instilled in us the desire to follow him. This is the grace to ask the Lord for. We ​​will always have this temptation to distance ourselves because we see something else: “This will work, this is a good idea…” – we distance ourselves. The grace is always to return to the first calling, to the first moment, and not to forget. Not to forget my story, when Jesus looked at me with love and said: “This is your way.” When Jesus, through many people, made me understand what the path of the Gospel is, and not other paths that are somewhat worldly, with different values.

We are counting down to the first meeting. The words of Jesus had always struck me on that resurrection morning when he said: “Go to my disciples and tell them to go to Galilee; there they will find me.” Galilee was the place of the first meeting. There, they met Jesus. Each of us has our own “Galileo” within us, that moment in which Jesus approached us and said, “Follow me.” In life, what happened to these people is good because they immediately say to him: “So what should we do?” They quickly obeyed. We move away and look for other values, explanations (hermeneutics), and other things, and we lose the freshness of the first vocation. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews also reminds us of this: “Remember the first days” (cf. Heb. 10:32). The memory, the memory of the first meeting, the memory of “my Galilee,” when the Lord looked at me with love and said to me: “Follow me.”

God, who is present in every place, sees everything. Though the sun illuminates the whole face of the earth, he sees nothing of that on which he sheds his light and cannot enjoy the beauties he causes by his radiance. Infinitely more penetrating are the eyes of the Lord. They shine through every being, and nothing escapes their notice. Behold, what a great reason to lead a blameless life. Our life runs like a filmstrip before the eyes of the Judge who sees all, whose sentence cannot be evaded or delayed by appeal to a higher or otherwise modified— judge who will not be moved by superficial pity or engineered tears.
Does he not see because he does not immediately punish? h, what blindness. e is patient. e knows your every sin; judgment will come when patience passes over him. St. Augustine said – If only I could know you who know me, and if only I could know you as well as you know me. You see to the bottom of human conscience; thou sees everything in me, even that which I would not want to reveal to thee; thou can hide from me, but I cannot hide from thee. Our only concern should be purifying our hearts to see God. The physical eye was created to see the light of the physical material. Even the unreasoning animals have such eyes. If something falls into our eye, it closes to the light. However, the light floods it with its rays and to the eye as if the light is not there. But there is another light that God has created. We can see this light through our spiritual sight. Our spiritual eyes are closed, especially by lust, covetousness, iniquity, and worldly pleasures. This clouds and blinds them. Care is taken to seek help when our bodily eye is diseased, not for a moment delaying its cure. Everything is done to enable it to perceive light again. The bodily eyes were given to us so that we might perceive natural light. Mental eyes have been given to us to perceive God as the Creator.O man, God created you in his image. Do you think He gave you only carnal eyes with which you could see only what He made, and not also spiritual eyes so that you could see Himself, who created you in His image? Look how you are. You are anxious about the physical eyes and neglect the inner eyes. When your Creator wants to show himself to you, it is displeasing to you, and when he wants to heal your eyes, you run away from him. As soon as Adam sinned in paradise, he immediately hid himself from the face of God. As long as his heart was innocent and his conscience clear, he felt happy in the presence of God, but as soon as sin hurt him, he was afraid to look into the divine light. He wandered into the thicket away from the truth; he walked.

Human reason will never be able to understand who God is ideally. And yet its most legitimate ambition is, and will be, to penetrate as far as possible into his essence. The Church Fathers speak of man’s inability to penetrate the secrets of God’s nature. St. Hilary writes. God is invisible, ineffable, and infinite. No word can express him; no spirit can explore him. St. Basil writes God may be known from his works, but it is not granted to us to penetrate his nature. God’s essence remains beyond our reach. Even St. Augustine, perhaps more than anyone else, plunged into the depths of the divine, proclaims its incomprehensibility.

God is a being, unchangeable, invisible, and sovereign, and it cannot be measured merely by visible things that change. If we understood God, he would no longer be God. It behooves us to acknowledge our incomprehensibility humbly. Lord, you created all things, and you are beautiful because they are beautiful; they are good because you are good. But their beauty is nowhere near equal to your beauty. When I liken them to you, they cease to be beautiful, good. God is ineffable.

It is easier to say what God is not than to say what God is… You admire the earth, but it is not God… You are overwhelmed by the sea, nor is it God. Neither do all the creatures in the ocean or the air. Neither does the heavens. It is not God. You ask, who is God? He is that which eye has not seen, ear has not heard, and has not entered the human heart. How would you like that to be revealed on the lips of a man who has not entered his heart?

It is easy to know the existence of God. Nothing is more natural to man than to get from the effects to the cause. St. Augustine debates with the unbeliever. How do I know that thou livest when I cannot see the principle of thy life? Thou answerest me. Thou knowest that I live, for I speak, I move, I work. And I am to believe that thou livest, that thou workest, that thou makest works. Why don’t you believe in the Creator when you see his creatures? He who sees nothing by so much light must be blind. At the sight of such wonders, he who does not utter a shout of wonder must be dumb.

St. Bernard paints a portrait of God. He is the one who is. He is pure, uncomplicated, flawless, always constant. He neither gains nor loses. He is indivisible. He lacks nothing, for He possesses everything. God is the embodiment of all perfections. Let us consider some perfections like goodness, justice, and mercy. God is not merely good, just, and merciful, but He is goodness, mercy, and justice personified. God is perfect, without a hint of imperfection. God comprehends everything directly, immediately, in a single eternal glance, fully. God does not alter. Everything around Him changes, yet He remains unchanging. The eternity of God is a result of His immutability. St. Augustine queries, Who then are you, my God? Who are You but the Lord, the Highest, the Best, the Mightiest, the Most Merciful, the Most Just, Loving but without passion, jealous but without unrest? You are sorrowful but without grief; you are angry but serene.