The Easter season will conclude with Pentecost, 50 days after Easter. This Gospel reading is from John 14:1-12, which begins with Jesus saying to his disciples, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.”
It is always amazing to me to see how the Holy Spirit lives and works among us.
When Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to his followers after his death, he was assuring them of an ongoing, living presence that would continue to be and do everything Jesus was and did while walking the earth. And sure enough! Just when we need it, the Gospel proclaims, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” This appropriateness: a coincidence? I don’t think so.
God has known from the beginning where we would be today, what we would need, what we would feel, how we would struggle.
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As this Gospel passage continues, Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life.”
It is comforting to reflect that when we don’t know the way out of this pandemic or the way forward into a future with the “new normal;” or when we don’t know where the truth lies in all the theories we are hearing about virus-related remedies, practices, sources and resources; or when life is threatened, abruptly shortened, lost, or forever changed; when we don’t know how to find the way or the truth or life, we can look to Jesus. He knows and he gently asks us to have faith.
So how does faith work in these troubled times?
We only have to look and listen.
The concluding part of this Gospel passage has Jesus saying, “Whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these.”
All around us today, and in the news stories that enter our homes, we see brave, generous, compassionate, creative people doing good works of healing, giving, sharing, protecting, supporting.
God is all around us and in us and with us. God is in God’s people. The spirit is alive and present. With the power of God in us and love leading us, all things are possible.
A priest in Ireland, Liam Lawton, is a composer of beautiful liturgical hymns. He has produced many CDs, but the one I find myself listening to and praying with most often these days is called “Healing Song.”
One of the hymns in this collection, titled “Heal Us Lord,” includes this verse: “In our grieving, fragile believing, hope receiving, heal us, Lord.
“In our rising, living and dying, love abiding, heal us, Lord.”
Let’s face the weeks and months ahead with healing songs in our hearts and do not let our hearts be troubled.
Love has a plan for us.
