Johannine Hours              Luke 10:21-22              February 1997
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[The "Johannine hours" are meant as a way of seeking God in silence
and prayer in the midst of our daily life. During the course of a
day, take a moment to read the Bible passage with the short
commentary and to reflect on the questions which follow.
Afterwards, a small group people can meet to share what they have
discovered and perhaps for a time of prayer.] 

He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, "I thank you, Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the
wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants."

Joy is often perceived as the end-result of our own efforts, for
example as in having done something well, or as a fleeting instant
in what is otherwise a sea of worries. Joy, however, is there at
every new beginning: as the angels sing for the newborn
Christ-child on that dark evening, with the disciples at Easter
before even they have fully comprehended, proclaimed at Pentecost
when the consoling Spirit opens the doors and enables the marvels
of God to be expressed in every language.

Joy is present too at the start of every encounter. Jesus' own
jubilation in the Gospel is an invitation for us to discover it
ourselves. Other people are a source of joy not because of the
satisfaction they can bring me, but because they are loved by God
each in a unique manner and are entrusted to me. You are God's joy,
and the Lord wishes that you be my joy also. God wishes that the
Holy Spirit enlighten the eyes of my heart ready as they so often
are to judge others, that my heart be made wider, and that an
expectant hope be woken up within me.

I am not responsible for creating my own joy (if so, my whole life
would be torn between the search for satisfaction and the threat of
disillusionment) but I am responsible for being always in wait for
it. I am responsible for confiding to God all the obstacles I come
across and for allowing him to change my heart of stone into a
heart which loves. Could this be the way which the starets and
saint Seraphim of Sarov himself discovered and which led him to
greet each one of his visitors with the words, "O, my joy!"

What helps me to see "my joy" in each person I meet?

Which "infants" are a source of thankfulness in my life? 

"Johannine Hours" - 01/97 - ©71250 Taizé-Community, France.
community@taize.fr 




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