Holyrood Church 715 West 179 Street, Upper West side Manhattan, USA, 212-923-3770

Magnify your Joy

 

Good morning, happy Monday, and blessings.
 
No one likes to fail at anything, and a spiritual fall is particularly distressing. The word failure immediately drums up uncomfortable thoughts of a blemish on our walk with God. Try as we might, however, we simply cannot and will not go through life without missing the mark from time to time. Most troubling to believers are those instances when we know the right thing to do but don’t do it.
 
Our gospel for today (John 16:29-33) contains Jesus’ final teaching before His arrest to His disciples, all of whom are about to fail spiritually. As He tells them (John 16:32), “Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.” The disciples were about to desert Jesus in His moment of greatest need.
 
But they didn’t even see it coming. Earlier in the evening, Peter had declared that he was ready to lay down his life for Christ, but Jesus had predicted that before the night was over, Peter would deny Him three times (John 13:37-38). Now, the disciples all think that they understand Jesus clearly and believe in Him (John 16:29-30). But Jesus knew otherwise and let them know that they all will desert Him.
 
But He tells them these things so that their spiritual failure would not be final. He’s equipping them to overcome their failure and go on to serve Him. They would lose the battle that dark night, but they wouldn’t lose the whole war. His encouraging theme is (John 16:33), “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” We can sum up His message: To overcome spiritual failure, be encouraged that there is always hope in Christ for future spiritual growth (John 16:25); be encouraged by your privilege in prayer (John 16:26); be encouraged by God’s special love and grace (John 16:27); and be encouraged that ultimately your peace is in Christ, not in your performance (John 16:29-33).
 
Failing God can lead us to real heart change as long as we’re willing to surrender our flaws to our merciful Savior. Sometimes those who fail are encouraged to “forgive themselves.”  How can we accept God’s grace in our failures? How can our spiritual failures strengthen us and be used to strengthen others? We can all learn through failing. Failure allows us to reflect on what we can do better the next time around.
 
You may be reeling from a failure so bad it has consumed your life. What’s more, like Peter, it has shown that your years of so-called strength were never really strong. It’s just that your strength was never tested. Jesus may not have revealed your failure beforehand like He did Peter’s. But don’t you think Jesus knows your failures as well—past as well as future? Yes, you failed. But God is not done with you—or you wouldn’t be here.
 
The advice of the Apostle Paul to the Church of Philippi, and also to us, is this: Brothers and sisters, I do not think that I have already achieved it myself. Rather, one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and striving to achieve what lies ahead. I read somewhere that someone said: The human being is a very curious creature; we magnify our problems and we live sad and anxious about it. If we magnify our joys, we would be happier.
Blessings
 
Fr. Luis+

Date news: 
Monday, May 25, 2020 - 09:45

Ministry at the time of Coronavirus (Covid 19): Prevent, cure and accompany

Now we have to shape what some have started calling; The Church at Home. Although I keep asking myself; What do those who do not have a home do? For this reason, at the same time, I am declaring today in our Holyrood Church a Lenten day of prayer, fasting and reading the Bible in the Time of the Coronavirus.

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