Daily Catholic Lectio
Mon, 2 June 2025
Seventh Week of Easter – Monday
Acts 19:1–8. John 16:29–33
Take Courage!
“In the world you will face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world.”
This verse is part of Jesus’ farewell discourse. In John’s Gospel, the term ‘world’ (kosmos) often has a dual meaning—it refers both to God’s created order and, paradoxically, to that which opposes God. In this verse, the first “world” may be understood as the space of divine action, while the second refers to the resistance to God’s will. Jesus does not promise His disciples a life without suffering; rather, He exhorts them to be courageous during tribulations. His victory is not political or military, but a triumph over evil, sin, and death. If Jesus, our brother and master, has overcome the world, then our Christian hope assures us that we too shall share in that victory.
The Second Vatican Council, in Gaudium et Spes, teaches: “When God is forgotten, the creature itself grows unintelligible. Without hope in eternal life, people lose heart in the face of life’s difficulties, suffering, and even death” (cf. GS 21). Hope sustains the human spirit.
The French painter Auguste Renoir, stricken with crippling arthritis in his later years, continued to paint with trembling hands. One day, a friend asked him, “Must you continue painting even with all this pain?” Renoir smiled and said, “The pain passes, but the beauty remains.”
What is the pain that burdens or disheartens you today? A physical illness? Mental unrest? Fear? Indecision? A feeling of being stuck? Doubt? Even if it hurts, let us keep walking. Because the path of pain is the path of perseverance, and perseverance leads to glory. We are pilgrims of hope. Let us journey on, embracing our crosses with courage.
As Saint Paul writes, “We even boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3–5).
Fr. Yesu Karunanidhi
Archdiocese of Madurai
Missionary of Mercy
Yesu Karunanidhi 
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