Sunday, June 5, 2011

Take courage!

Prayer for the Day

“Lord Jesus, your compassion for us is beyond our understanding! I bring the needs of all my loved ones before you. Please draw them close and heal them.”

Reflection

“In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.”

(John 16:33) is particularly encouraging and reminds us of two things people often forget.

The first is that life in this world is normally accompanied by problems. To expect otherwise is unrealistic and can tend toward sadness and disappointment.

The second is Jesus' exhortation to "take courage," because He has "conquered the world."

Christ begins with a comforting note: “the Father is with me.” We are never ever left alone to confront our troubles by ourselves because the Father is with us. The Father does not abandon us to find his plan for us alone. The question then follows, however, 'do we trust him enough to get us to where we need to go?

By unequivocally declaring victory over the world and all its trouble, Jesus provides us with a remedy from everything that can disturb us. It is this: faith in Him and hope.

Armed with these virtues, problems don't disappear, but take their proper place and we are empowered to respond to all that surrounds us, with Love.

Christ follows this up with an explanation: “I have told you this so that you may have peace in me.” Christ wants us to be peaceful and to have peace. He actually offers it to us today in this Gospel. Do we have peace? Are we offering the very best peaceful and joyful life lived to God? Are we enjoying the enormous gift of life that we’ve been given? Are we allowing God to comfort us and bring us peace?

Christ’s final statement is perhaps the most jarring: “In the world you will have trouble.” He begins with comforting talk about the Father and peacefulness—almost as if to prepare us for this final statement and soften the blow. Have we accepted God’s plan for us or are we just waiting for our own plans to begin? Whose schedule are we following? The world encourages us to believe in ourselves and to trust in ourselves the most. The parallel worldly outline to John’s gospel is to have a goal, work really hard for it, and if I am in any way, shape, or form a good person, I will succeed. If I don't succeed, it means I am a failure and the Self-Pity Monster finds a new home.

We are made for peace and love. Until we embrace God’s love, (and his plan for us) we will only ever find trouble in the world.

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"I demand from you deeds of mercy, which are to arise out of love for Me. You are to show mercy to your neighbors always and everywhere. You must not shrink from this or try to excuse or absolve yourself from it.

I am giving you three ways of exercising mercy toward your neighbor:
the first — by deed, the second — by word, the third — by prayer. In these three degrees is contained the fullness of mercy, and it is an unquestionable proof of love for Me. By this means a soul glorifies and pays reverence to My mercy.

Many souls ... are often worried because they do not have the material means with which to carry out an act of mercy. Yet spiritual mercy, which requires neither permissions nor storehouses, is much more meritorious and is within the grasp of every soul.

If a soul does not exercise mercy somehow or other, it will not obtain My mercy on the day of judgment. Oh, if only souls knew how to gather eternal treasure for themselves, they would not be judged, for they would forestall My judgment with their mercy".