8 In the midst of what is usually referred to as “the Last Supper discourse,” the four solemn chapters of instructions and prayers delivered on the eve of his death, Jesus tells the disciples, I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete (Jn 15:11). Evidently what is at stake in following Jesus, embracing his teaching, and uniting ourselves to him in his redemptive Passion involves our own beatitude, our own happiness. “God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself,” the Catechism teaches, “in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life” (CCC 1). And what is still more amazing, even when humanity strayed and turned away from him for the paltry and illusory freedoms and pleasures of sin, the Lord in his goodness repaired what was broken to make possible again the attainment of that blessedness: God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us (Rom 5:8). And so it is that in the final hours before Jesus dies on the cross he reminds us that it is all for our sake. Jesus, the Word made flesh, offers his life to reconcile us to God and to enable us to share in his own divine and eternal joy. INTRODUCTION
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