“The Spirit gives life” – John 6:60-69
As I sit to write this I am still filled with the spirit that filled this summer’s Youth 2000 Festival in Roscrea. It was a truly blessed time and a time of great healing and renewal for many who attended. The Summer Festival is quiet distinct from the other summer festivals arranged for young people in Ireland during the summer.
We believe, because we too have discovered personally in our own lives, that it is only by meeting Jesus that our lives take on any true meaning and we receive a joy and a peace that no substances or passing amusements can offer. In this Sunday’s Gospel Jesus teaches us quiet openly that “it is the spirit that gives life, the flesh has nothing to offer”.
Over the weekend I saw miracles. I saw people smile who had forgotten how to smile. I saw peace return to those who were troubled with so much stuff. I have come to realise again just how difficult it can be at times to grow up in the modern world. There are pressures that you have to carry that when I was at your age were completely foreign to my experience.
But I also see how when you turn to the Lord, through Mary, how you can come to see life in a whole new way and begin to have the joy of the Gospel. This joy and peace is not just for four days in August in Roscrea. The presence of Jesus in your life is for every day.
St. Peter in the Gospel tells us the truth that there is no one to turn but Jesus since only he has the message of eternal life. Peter discovered this by spending time with Jesus in his day, those of us who were together in the Summer Festival discovered it for our time. Jesus, particularly His sacramental presence in the Blessed Sacrament is the fount from which we receive all peace and joy, so don’t waste your time looking for it any place else, only in Jesus can your soul find rest.
For all who worked so hard for the Festival we all say a big thank-you. You facilitated us meeting the Lord and discovering that the truth and joy of the Gospel is just as alive today as it was in St. Peter’s day.
Fr. John Harris OP