25 April 2021

When Jesus doesn’t say what you expect Him to...

...I was contemplating this from the Jubilate Gospel, and particularly John 16:22: “And ye now therefore have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.”

The italicized words seem to be reversed from what I would expect: “but you will see Me again.” And that led me to some pondering. The source of a joy that fills the heart and that cannot be taken from us is not that we with our eyes get to see Jesus risen; that was something for the Apostles, but we are “those who have not seen” and those St. Peter spoke of: “whom having not seen, ye love.” We have not seen Jesus but we are not excluded thereby from the promise of a heart rejoicing and joy that no man can take from us. For THIS is the source of our joy: I will see you again. The eyes that had once closed in death see again; and those eyes belong to Him who is Forgiveness for all sin; Destruction of all death; Eternal life in human flesh. Those are the eyes that see again and this, beloved, is joy beyond all joy. He’s watching you with those forgiving and death destroying eyes; He’s got you in His sights and He will keep you there, from the first moments of your existence in your mother’s womb until the present, from the present until you (should He not return first) expire and begin your turn back to the dust, to that day He calls you from the dust to shine with Him in His glory.

HIS eyes see you. This is joy. And this is peace. I think the more we remember the eyes of Crucified and Risen Lord fixed upon us, the greater that peace and that joy will be in our lives. That is all.

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