Living in Truth

"I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete."(Jn15:9-17) TheWill of our Father in Heaven is that we be filled with joy. Jesus reveals to us today that He wants to make up for what is lacking in our lives. Our joy is incomplete. There are too many things that weigh us down. Distractions, worries, anxieties, fears, wounds, temptations, addictions, sins, all these rob us of experiencing the joy of life. In a certain sense they keep us from seeing the truth of our life. But as Jesus prays today that we remain in Him and in His Love, He reveals to us that in doing so He will fill us with His own Joy and our joy will be complete. In His Love Jesus makes up for what is lacking in us. He completes us because He Loves us. This is not only true with the joy of life but in all things. Jesus makes up for what is lacking in our faith, in our ability to love, in our hope, in all things. We are not alone and we do not have to do things alone, on our own ability, by our own willing it. Jesus is with us. While we remain in Him we are filled to capacity and overflowing with all the gifts of Life and of Love that He gives to us. This is the Will of our Father in Heaven. Thus we are called to submit ourselves to His Holy Will which is Love and Mercy itself. Love and Mercy is what He longs to fill us with. This is so important for the spiritual life because discouragement or lack of discernment often blind us to the truth. Often people have an inflated opinion of themselves as if they are all right, in essence ignoring what God is doing for them or asking of them because they are content at the time with what they are doing or how life is going. The opposite to this is that they feel worthless as if God would not want anything to do with them. They are alone in their misery and think they are not worthy of God's Blessings or that they will never overcome their struggles thus they will never be pleasing to God. Both of these tendencies isolate us because they both ignore the Truth of our Father's Love and place the love of self at the center of our ones life. We must remain in Jesus for as our love is co-mingled with His Love we learn to truly love: as our joy is mixed with His Joy we can truly be joyful; as our hope is is co-mingled with His Hope we experience true Hope. In truth when we remain in Jesus we remain in Love, Joy, and Hope Itself for our Savior is the beginning and the end of all these. Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega not only of the Universe but of our very lives. In humility we are called to recognize this today and humbly begin to truly live through Him, with Him and in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit. In doing so we will be fulfilled and know the fullness of life in our Father's Loving Mercy.