What Jesus is saying to the disciples is: don’t be joyful because you have power (or have anything!), but because heaven knows your name, that is, because I love you. Powerful figures of history write their names on huge monuments of stone to be remembered. But the names of those who have responded to God’s love are written in heaven, in the Book of Life. Monuments are easily destroyed and, even if they’re not, people forget the names on them as soon as they have seen them. A name written in heaven is for ever.

So, we might ask: is my name written in heaven? Well, consider the disciples of Jesus. What had they done that He would tell them with such certainty that their names were written in heaven? They quite simply let Him into their hearts. They said “yes” to Him. They then began, however haltingly, to take the steps needed to follow through on that yes: leaving behind certain things, even good things, and gradually leaving behind their attachment to sin. Their yes led them to obey Him, trusting that He would make good on His promises. The Gospel also tells us that Jesus only chose his apostles after spending the entire night in prayer to God. They had been the “topic of conversation”, we might say, between Jesus and the Father in heaven. In that sense, too, their names were not just written but also spoken in heaven. That could be a good song: my name is spoken in heaven!

So, if we listen for the voice of Jesus in our hearts and respond to Him, whatever calling He gives us in this life; if we take the steps needed to follow through in obedience to Him; if we leave behind whatever impedes responding to Him, especially sin: then we can be sure, too, that Jesus speaks of us to the Father and that our names are written in heaven. Perhaps we could put it even better and say that our very person, our very being, is impressed upon the Heart of God. It’s not the name we bear in this life which counts so much, but the deep identity of who we are in God’s sight and of who we become in our obedient discipleship of Jesus until death.

All of this is the work of the love of God. Why else would He, first, create us and then call us? The true name of each of us is but another version or offshoot of divine love. The labour of the labourers in the vineyard is a labour of love. It is to liberate those who respond to them from the power of evil and to direct their hearts and lives towards the Kingdom. It is to restore them to love and to direct them to the Kingdom of love.

The fruit of love is joy. Joy is the effect of being loved and of loving. Even in times of distress and pain, joy persists deep in the heart, as is seen in the lives of the saints and martyrs. When we know that we are loved eternally by God, we have the certain hope that that love will conquer all things and so we are joyful. As we pass through the valley of suffering and death, we can, as St. Augustine says, keep on walking and keep on singing, defiantly, “alleluia!”, for we know that our Good Shepherd has prepared a banquet for us in the sight of our foes. We will dwell in his house for ever and ever.

Joy is not to be confused with happiness. Happiness is more a pleasant reaction to the pleasant circumstances which come and go. Even someone with no deep joy can be happy from time to time. And someone whose circumstances are dire can still experience a deep joy since it is rooted, not in what is passing, but in what endures, in God. Nor should we confuse joy with pleasure. Pleasure is often short-lived and is produced by external stimuli upon our senses although of course you can derive pleasure from a good book or drama. Pleasure can easily become a selfish thing if is sought for its own sake to gratify oneself. Pleasure is more authentic if it is sought for the true good of others and in their company. Whereas joy, if it is real, is lasting and comes from the interior experience of love and of other deeper values which give meaning and purpose to our lives.

At the Last Supper, Jesus said these incredible words: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love …. I have told you this so that my own joy may be in you and your joy be complete.” The Lord wants our complete, total joy and that can only be ours by accepting His love and obeying Him. Obedience to Him will mean that we may need to let go of certain forms of happiness and pleasure which, despite appearances, only lead to sadness and to the destruction of our joy. His grace will help us if we ask for it and work with it, and work with others, to break the hold on us which deceptive enticements often have. The Lord wants us to be free to experience His love and to love Him in return, to experience His joy and to rejoice in Him.

If you are feeling low or sad these days or are having doubts about God’s love for you and even His existence at all, I can assure you that the Lord is especially close to you. He is standing nearby with His meek and humble Heart wide open and His pierced hands outstretched. Perhaps you may not yet be ready to go to Him and experience His embrace, but He will wait for you. He will always wait for you. If we listen to our own hearts we will realise little by little that His presence and attention to us are exquisite and personal. They are greater and more certain than anything we are going through. Then, we can begin to let go of whatever ails us and open up our arms to Him. No matter how things may feel now, nothing we suffer can ever compare with the immensity of His love and, therefore, with the immensity of His joy. If we but take the time and summon the courage to draw closer to Him, we would see that our own name is written in block capitals on His Sacred Heart. The joy which comes from seeing that will be complete, will be His own divine joy, and it will never be taken from us!