In the daily Mass Gospel readings we've been working our way through Jesus' teachings given to His disciples on the evening of the Last Supper, starting with the departure of Judas (Jn 13: 31) and ending in Jesus' setting off for the Mount of Olives (Jn 18:1). Jesus' words in these four- plus chapters can be dense, filled with theological discussions about the Father and the Holy Spirit. Often the disciples seem confused, and not surprisingly so-- the idea of a Trinitarian God was completely foreign to them. But the point of this teaching, to which Jesus returns explicitly twice, and implicitly often, is joy. Jesus wants the joy of the disciples to be "complete" (Jn 15:11 and 16:24). So what does that look like? How does it feel to have your joy be "complete"? i don't know for sure, but I think it is something like holding a four-month old granddaughter and watching her smile at you. I got to do that a lot this weekend at our cabin up in northwestern Wisconsin, and I can tell you there's nothing better. The smile of an infant is so simple, so genuine, so truly real, so lacking in affectation. It is the smile of someone so happy to connect to someone else, so eager for life, so open to allof its possibilities. There are no hidden agendas. There's just a light that illuminates the whole face-- the whole person, in fact. Maybe that's what we're seeking. Maybe that's what Jesus wants us all to experience directly (not just by observing someone else, fun as that is). Maybe that's what Jesus is talking about in this portion of John's Gospel. How to do that? Perhaps more on that tomorrow....