Eternal Joy

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Can we experience both inner peace and grief at the same time? I think the answer must be yes. I think of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane just before he was arrested. He knew what was coming…being betrayed by friends, falsely accused, mocked, and murdered…and his grief was so great that he sweat drops of blood. Yet in the end, he found peace in the midst of his grief by turning himself over the the will and plan of God the Father. He knew that after the grief would come the Resurrection, but he still had to walk the way of the Cross.

Are you in pain, feeling grief, lost, or betrayed? I pray that you can feel God’s peace in the midst of it. If we will only yield, stop fighting it, and turn to him in faith, even if the grief is still there, so will there also be peace.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” - Jesus

Are the Angels not continually occupied with us without ever ceasing to see the divine Face, to lose themselves in the shoreless Ocean of Love? Why wouldn't Jesus allow me to imitate them? (LT 254)