Daily Retreat 05/29/06

2006 May 29 Mon: Easter Weekday

Acts 19: 1-8/ Ps 67(68): 2-3ab. 4-5acd. 6-7ab/ Jn 16: 29-33

From today’s readings: "Paul entered the synagogue, and for three months debated boldly with persuasive arguments about the Kingdom of God.... Sing to God, chant praise to His name; whose name is the LORD.... In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world!"

He Has Conquered!

Chapters 13,14,15, and 16 of the Gospel of St. John recount the Lord’s Farewell Discourse spoken to His disciples during the Last Supper. So many words of our Lord are recorded there: words about humble service; words about the commandment to love one another; words about the way, the truth, and the life; words about the Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth; words of comfort and promise; words of confident assurance, all concluding with Jesus saying, "In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world!"

What does it mean that the Lord has conquered the world? Amazingly enough, these words were spoken before Christ’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection. Easter, of course, confirmed that Jesus was clearly the victor over sin and death, but it was on Holy Thursday when Jesus was already assuring His apostles that He had conquered the world!

It’s obvious that Jesus was not speaking of a military conquest. But we certainly shouldn’t think of His triumph as something less than a military victory - rather, it was much more! For every military conquest is subject to eventual displacement in history by some future conquest - every land that the mighty Romans once subjugated, for instance, has since their time seen new battles, with new victors and new vanquished peoples.

In contrast, the Lord’s conquest is complete, definitive, and eternal. Yet how can that claim be made, since the world as a whole clearly does not fully recognize God’s dominion? God’s will is done completely in Heaven, but on Earth, in accordance with divine decree, the probation of human free will continues to be played out in the great drama of history, because that is the whole purpose of history - for each person created by God to exercise free will in the loving choice of embracing the Lord of all!