“THE HIDDEN JOY OF CHRIST GIVEN TO YOU IN HIS WORD”
Saint John 16: 16-23
JUBILATE: 17 April Anno Domini 2016
Father Jay Watson SSP
You see thunderstorms with their lighting and hail. You see large natural disasters. You can’t get away from seeing the bigness, intrusiveness, and chaos of government, armies, mega-heretics, and ego-driven busy-bodies!
But in your own selfish greed and desire to dominate, pontificate, and regulate others, you miss, most of the time, the gentle breeze, soft rain shower or dew, and faithful one or two strengthened by the seemingly hidden things of The Lord’s Word!
The entire life of faith, the entire exodus of a Christian, is under the cloud cover, the shade, the darkness of the cross. Eyes are “held” from beholding the true Glory and Light of the ineffable Holy Trinity. Faith cometh by hearing.
Eve believed the promised Word given her in Genesis 3 without seeing. Abraham believed the Word given him and his descendants without seeing. Jacob, Judah, David, and Solomon held fast to the Word when by sight and experience all seemed to be slipping away—when eyes beheld only strife, suffering, illness, and death.
The same applied to the “12” as it had to all the Children of Israel in the desert; to all the Old Testament Saints. The Lord wanted His Apostles to be ready for His visible departure and the invisible arrival of The Holy Ghost in their Holy Orders of the Holy Office of the Ministry.
Peter, John, and the others did not know what Their Lord meant when He said He was going to the Father. He had not yet been crucified. He had not yet risen victorious. They did not like this talk of His leaving. And especially after Holy Pascha, when He would meet with them, eat with them, commune with them, and continue the greatest joyful reunion ever; (well, before the heavenly reunion at the eschaton) they still did not understand His “going to the Father” language. Ahh, that is the rub! Sitting around with the resurrected Christ in Jerusalem for eternity while the rest of the word goes on in unbelief and spiritual deafness and death is not why Messias came. “I have other sheep not YET of this fold.” The Apostles were being instructed by their Master about where to look for Jesus and where to find The Father when they prayed His prayer. This is The faith of Holy Scripture, the very content of The Word which enkindles and quickens you to life and which is the fuel of your individual faith—which is never only individual; “WE believe” as the Nicene Creed declares, as the Symbols reiterate and as you testify and martyr with your life and actions!
The Lord knew that His friends, His brothers, had wept and lamented greatly on Good Friday and Holy Saturday, and that they had been fearful and depressed on Easter—suffocating under a cloud of despair and apprehension until He arrived in their midst. But their sorrow was turned to joy when He said Peace…when He was with them.
It was now to be the same and yet different. Now the “12” as David prophesied, were to “make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands” and in all lands—beginning in Jerusalem (Pentecost) and proceeding to Samaria, Galilee, and the ends of the Gentile earth; to the end of earthly life through glorious martyrdom!
The joy of Christ’s peace and mercy, of His loosing of the bound and feeding of the hungry, would be visible through the means of Grace which He would bestow upon His ambassadors through the Word. His Words would be Peter’s words, Andrew’s words, Matthias’ Words, and Paul’s words. Christ’s forgiveness would be applied by the preaching and teaching of His “sent ones.” Christ would be visible in their oral proclamation—to gentiles, believing Jews, and to all of you!
And adding a superabundance of Grace to the already sufficient saving grace of Christ’s Word of absolution, He permits His Apostles, priests, pastors, and bishops, to distribute His self-same sacramental mystery which He distributed on Holy Thursday.
Your week-long anguish is over. Your week long travail as a woman in labor—laboring over sins you’ve done, good things you’ve failed to do, and assaults and wounds you’ve received—is not just as any “woman” but as the spotless, chaste, virginal Bride of The Lamb. You the Holy Church have joy this day for a man is born into the world. But the Bethlehem God is no longer a babe, and is more than the perfect man, the Second Adam. He is the God/Man Son of the Father. And with His Father and the Holy Spirit they bring you joy and release, strength and Sabbath rest in Jesus’ Supper. He is with you, save for being visibly seen, in every way He was with His disciples. All that you ask The Father in His Name He gives to you at the communion rail.
In the Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
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