Today’s Gospel passage shows Christ glorifying His Father several times. In doing so Jesus shows the source of love, the source of joy and the source of all that we receive. Jesus has revealed the Father’s love by keeping the Father’s commandments faithfully and submitting with perfect humility to service of the Father.
This requires concentration and focus on our part. It is impossible for us to communicate love to others unless we ourselves are aware of the love God has for us. Despair is such a grave sin for believers because it highlights how far removed we are from realizing the love God has for us. But despair and depression are such a common aspect of current society. It can be said to be an inevitable consequence of atheistic materialism, and is widespread at the present time. The Father does not make the excessive demands that the world makes on us. He never puts on our plate anything we cannot deal with. So the cross we bear must have as its source only the Father, and not the world.
The darkness we sometimes feel, the depression of others around us, or the aggressive materialism we are part of, can obscure the Father’s love from us. We must always return to meditate on the love God has for us. Jesus, despite his imminent death, is speaking today of the joy he receives from the Father, and a joy He is more than willing to pass on to us, as Christ keeps nothing for Himself.