MAKING OUR JOY COMPLETE

Feast of St. John, Apostle and Evangelist
1 Jn 1:1-4


Today’s First Reading is one of my favorite scriptural passages. “…that we have heard, and we have seen with our own eyes, that we have watched and touched with our hands…we are writing to you to make our own joy complete.” Now we know why John wrote the Fourth Gospel and his epistles.

John heard, saw, watched and touched the Word-Made-Flesh. He could have been happy with that. And indeed, he was! But his joy was never complete until he passed on to us what he heard, saw, watched and touched. His joy was to make us know, meet, and love the Jesus whom he met, knew, and loved. That is the mark of a true apostle! That is what makes a disciple an apostle.

How many of us can say the same thing that John said today? Some of us stop at meeting, knowing, and loving the Lord. They do not care to share Jesus with others. Too bad, they are missing a lot. They may be happy, but theirs is a joy that is not complete. It is in sharing the Lord with others that gives a disciple of the Lord real fulfillment. Unless we pass Him on to others, we have not yet become an apostle.

Let us share Jesus with others. Let us grow from being a disciple to being an apostle. Let our joy be complete.