John 15:9-11
‘If you keep my commandments
you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father’s commandments
and remain in his love.
I have told you this
so that my own joy may be in you
and your joy be complete.’
By this stage in Eastertide we have heard a good deal of John’s Gospel. There are some overlaps and repetitions between the weekday and Sunday liturgies. We’ve heard parts of today’s Gospel already. The themes of keeping Christ’s commandments and remaining in his love weave in and out of each other. Today the element of ‘joy’ is added.
I associate pure joy with small children and this in turn reminds me of this passage from the Tales of the Hasidim:
Said the maggid to Rabbi Zusya, his disciple: “I cannot teach you the principles of service. But a little child and a thief can show you what they are:
From the child you can learn three things:
— He is merry for no particular reason;
— Never for a moment he is idle;
— When he needs something, he demands it vigorously.
Being merry for no particular reason is one of the special gifts of childhood. The joy of one young child spreads so easily to others and to adults too. I remember as a child feeling that I might burst with joy and excitement. When you reach adulthood that joy takes on a different shape. It isn’t nearly as frequent and there might be some foreboding mixed in too. The idea Jesus might find his joy in us is something that I don’t spend nearly enough time thinking about. That Jesus wants our ‘joy to be complete’ speaks to me of the depths of the Paschal mystery: every joy and every sorrow that we experience unites us ever closer to Christ.
How can you live in Christ’s joy today?
Image: Senjuti Kundu, Unsplash
You can read the full extract from The Tales of the Hasidim here: https://www.jhom.com/topics/thieves/hasidic.htm