Peace and well
Daily reflection
13/05/2021
Gospel of Saint John16,16-20
This Thursday of the sixth week of Easter has long been the day we celebrated the Feast of the Ascension, which has now been moved to next Sunday. However, the tone of the Gospel reading is permeated with the same spirit of farewell to Jesus, which, on the other hand, fills the entire discourse of the Last Supper.
The apostles do not understand at the moment the words of Jesus: «in a little while you will no longer see me», which later on they would realize that they were referring to his imminent death, «and in a little while you will see me again», this time with an announcement of his resurrection, which they would later understand better.
Faced with this forthcoming farewell to death, Jesus tells them that «you will weep and mourn, and the world will rejoice.» But that will not be the last word: God, once again, is going to write straight with lines that seem crooked and that lead to failure. And Jesus will continue to be present, albeit in a more mysterious way, in the midst of his own.
REFLECTION
The absences of Jesus also affect us many times. And they cause us to feel like in the dark of night and in the eclipse of the sun. For example, many church saints spoke their expertise about that, such as the dark night. Because the presence of Jesus is not always the same, that is, sometimes he is with us when we are with him or otherwise (the saints who spoke about this experience, Saint Anthony of the Abbot, Saint John of the Cross, Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint Teresa of Calcutta etc)
If we knew that «in a little while» the tunnel in which we seem to find ourselves will be finished, we would console ourselves, but we have no short-term security. Only faith assures us that the absence of Jesus is presence, mysterious but real. Continuous prayer also helps us to always live with the presence of God. But prayer is not easy if not a fight or fight etc.
Also, for us, like the apostles, it is difficult for us to understand why in the path of a person – be it Christ himself, or us – death or renunciation or pain must enter. We would like a resurrection-only Easter. But we already began to celebrate Easter on Good Friday, with its double unitary movement: death and resurrection. There are times when we «don’t see,» and others when we «see again.» Like Christ himself, who also had moments when he did not see the presence of the Father in his life: «why have you abandoned me?»
Celebrating Easter we must grow in the conviction that Christ and his Spirit are present and active, even though we do not see them. The Eucharist continually reminds us of this presence. And therefore, we cannot «lose heart», that is, lose our breath: «Spirit» in Greek («Pneuma») means precisely «Breath».
Fr. Antony Majeesh George Kallely, OFM.
