Reflection for Nursing Home Prayer Service
Wednesday of the 3rd Sunday of Easter, Year A
May 7, 2014
Readings:  Acts 8:1B-8, Psalm 66, Jn 6:35-40
by Mrs. Rita Zimmermann, Faith Formation Coordinator

In the Acts of the Apostles and the letters of Paul, the response of people who began to believe was joy. It today’s First Reading we hear, “Thus Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Christ to them… There was great joy in that city.”

Webster describes Joy as: a source or cause of great happiness; something or someone that gives joy to someone. I along with those from the parish have had the pleasure to get to know a young man with true Joy.

At Easter he was received into the Church; during that service you could visibly see the joy on his face. He glowed and at the reception afterwards, his family spoke on how they had seen a transformation in him. Both the young and old at Holy Name of Mary are inspired by this young man who loves the Lord so much that he can not get enough of Him. He has not missed a Sunday or his twice-a-week classes since he showed up at our door in February. We will often find him in the church deep in prayer. His friends and those around him want what he has. To know the Lord.

In John’s Gospel we hear, “Though you have seen me, you still do not believe.” The question is: how much of Jesus did they really see? Sure, they saw his human body, but how deep was their knowledge of who he truly was and is?

This may be our problem too even if we have been Christian for a very long time. Do we have a deep trust and total commitment to Jesus and all he stands for?  Do we let that joy be overwhelmed? Just as a sickness can ruin our plans and a painful happening can bring us down. We may find that we do not really see Jesus as he is.

Jesus wants us to know him. He tells us, “Indeed, it is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks upon the Son and believes in him, shall have eternal life.”

Let us open our hearts today so that Jesus can fill them with his life-giving joy. For he says: “I will not reject anyone who comes to me.”

Jesus has a mission. “ I came down from heaven (a phrase repeated six times in this chapter so it must me important) not to do my will but the will of him who sent me.” And what is the will of the Father? “It is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me but that I should raise it (on) the last day.”

God wants everyone to be with him “on the last day”. For our part, we have to learn how to “see the Son” and “believe in him.” When that happens, we know that we have truly been filled with the Joy of Christ.