When Judas had left them
Judas excluded himself from what was to follow. By his own choice he prevented himself from hearing words that he did not want to hear, from learning of a glory that was beyond his conception of glory. When he stepped out Jesus was on the verge of revealing the inner logic of the cross, a logic that could be a comfort during his hour of darkness. Jesus taught those disciples who remained with him to look at his cross as something he intended and purposefully chose, an act by which he laid down his life for his friends. To an outsider without this perspective it appeared to be a tragedy. To one who did not know this secret the world seemed to proceed as ever, rolling over and crushing the weak and the innocent without sympathy. It looked as though the life of Jesus was taken from him, in contrast to what he himself had said. But Jesus explained that the cruel torture and the ignominious death as a criminal were not a sufficient explanation or an exhaustive definition of his death, not the final words about it.
If God is glorified in him,
God will also glorify him in himself,
and God will glorify him at once.
We see implied, from the way that Judas stole from the money bag of the disciples, that he had too much faith in the ways of the world. Power and wealth were the only way to glory he was willing to see. But who wouldn't prefer this? Maybe with the right use of resources, with enough accumulation of worldly power, Jesus would not need to go as far as to die for them. Peter had tried to suggest that Jesus ought not do so. Perhaps Judas was simply insisting on this point, at first betraying Jesus, he may have imagined, for his own sake. Or perhaps it was just that he had finally given up on the inability of Jesus to care about glory according to the earthly paradigm, and decided to recoup what investment he could from having followed him as far as he had.
My children, I will be with you only a little while longer.
I give you a new commandment: love one another.
As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.
Are we able to hear this commandment that Jesus gave, or have we already fled like Judas? True glory is revealed when life is broken open and shared. A grain of wheat gives life only when it falls to the ground and dies. Even if we read these words have our egos already fled to the safety of familiarity? Are they already thinking of what they might do according to their own resources to mitigate the necessity of sacrifice? We are to love even as Jesus loved. And he loved us all the way to the arms of his father, but not otherwise than by means of his cross.
This is how all will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another.
That the early Church heard this call to love was evidenced by the abundance of martyrs, whose blood, it was said, was the seed of the growth of the Church. How can we get past the familiarity that makes us discount the truth and importance of this commandment? How can we overcome the defensive barriers our self will puts up against the call to love?
I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
With the end in view we can have the proper context for everything that happens along the way. Mourning, wailing, and pain may be endured with the knowledge that God himself will be the recompense of those who suffer. Tears may be shed, but in hope, knowing that he himself will wipe them from every eye. His plan is for the creation a new heaven and a new earth that is not indifferent to suffering, but is finally and definitively able to offer comfort and recompense. He is preparing us to be a people who share his heart, a people who are to be known by the way we love one another. Unless the new Jerusalem was populated with such people it could not be a perfect city. It is this heart of love that makes the city a fitting bride adorned for her husband, able finally to say "I am yours" to the "You are mine" she hears from God.
There are many alternative utopian fantasies that we might prefer to the new heaven and the new earth. But not one of them can give meaning to the sufferings of this present age. Only the glory of the cross can do that. It is vital, therefore, that we not flee like Judas, but that we build ourselves up in the hope. There are many crosses we are called to witness, many we are called to bear. But even already there is a glory to be revealed. For as we do so we are being made into dwelling places for God. By his grace, even in the dark hour, we see the coming of the Kingdom.
Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race.
He will dwell with them and they will be his people
and God himself will always be with them as their God.
We see that money and power are insufficient to build a vision of eternity as compelling and as worthy of hope as the one shown to us in the Scriptures. But we also see that it is not merely a matter of waiting for some heaven that is entirely separate and unrelated to the veil of tears in which we now live. Our work at building the Church and at loving others really does spiritually participate in the coming of the Kingdom. Our own love is as a prayer that calls out to the bridegroom, saying, "Yes! This is the world to come that is desire!" Amen, Lord Jesus. Even so, come.
They strengthened the spirits of the disciples
and exhorted them to persevere in the faith, saying,
“It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships
to enter the kingdom of God.”
Now we are in a position to see how hearing about hardships might actually strengthen us. Having learned the secret of glory from Jesus we needn't get hung up on the hardships themselves, and we need not be shaken by them. It is nothing unusual that is happening to us, and there is already the hint of glory, the coming of the Kingdom, as we reveal the grace poured out by Jesus on the cross in our own lives. May we open ourselves to the power of the one who desires to wipe away every tear, who desires already to begin the work of making all things new, in us and through us. We do not anticipate that this work will be accomplished before he comes. But our work itself, seen as his gift, becomes our prayer for his coming.
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