This weekend our gospel reading could have been written for the current situation we are in with the corona virus pandemic. As a result of this many people are fearful for what might happen going forward and Jesus calls us to have faith and trust in him. This Gospel is about Jesus helping the Apostles get ready for his suffering and death. For the apostles this would be a huge reversal from the adulation of the entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Remember when he asked them whether they would leave him, along with the rest of the crowd or stay with him? Now it is he who is leaving. They are stunned. ” Jesus tells them as he tells us now “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God, have faith also in me.”
The straightforward meaning of this directive is, you know how to trust, you do it with God. Use that same trust with me. Jesus speaks to us not at us. His presence is in the word proclaimed in the Assembly of the people of god gathered together via the internet during these days. His word is proclaimed to us in the readings from scripture as well as in lived example of others in the community where we live especially those who are on the front line working to help and protect all of us from covid19. We come to Pray week in week out to hear the Word of God. We come to share the joys and sufferings of all the community gathered together. During these days we make a spiritual communion with Jesus, risen from the Tomb as we cannot meet together in our churches. When we’re confused about what might happen Jesus Himself will show us the Way.
When we don’t know what is true and what is false, what is right and what is wrong, the Holy Spirit through the Church and its members will enlighten us and guide us to trust Jesus and one another. The disciples learnt soon after Jesus had left them that they didn’t have ready answers to everything the same as ourselves today. As we learn from the divisions in the early Christian communities, they all had to work together to find a way forward. There are many things Jesus did not tell them, and they had to face the future together with honesty and that too is what we need to do face the future together. Jesus trusted his followers down the ages right to you and me today to face the confusion and complexity of the world. That’s why he doesn’t leave us answers to everything. There’s still a lot of working out to be done by all of us especially theses days.
Looking to Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life doesn’t actually solve every question effortlessly. But Jesus knew that! Clearly he wants us to put our faith to work and solve the problems that we encounter in our daily lives and living especially during these more difficult days. During these days of pandemic lockdown we pray that we will trust in the love of God shown to us through Jesus who asks us to trust in him when he said “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God, have faith also in me.”
Fullerton T 