Monday, May 18, 2015

Friday of the 6th Week of Easter, Cycle B - May 15, 2015

Friday of the 6th Week of Easter
May 15, 2015       8:30am


We have all experienced “Good Fridays” in our lives.
Here I do not mean the day after Holy Thursday.
I mean that we have all experienced sufferings and dyings.
Jesus doesn’t sugar coat that reality for us.
He doesn’t say that he will spare us from these “Good Fridays.”

In fact, maybe the clearest teaching in the entire gospel story is that every experience of Easter in our lives requires a Good Friday.
In today’s gospel, Jesus notes that the birth of a child requires the pain of childbirth.
Or, the diploma received at graduation requires years of study.
Success in business requires steady, creative, and risk-taking work.
The celebration of a marriage anniversary requires the giving of self day by day and year by year.
The idea is that every experience of joy and fulfillment requires some kind of challenge and the giving-of-oneself.

Today, in some of his final words to his disciples, Jesus reminds us that when we live life with him, God can transform our grief into joy, our hard work into fulfillment, our commitment into satisfaction.
He says it very simply: “Your grief will become joy.”   

Jesus calls us to embrace an attitude of resurrection.