Behold, the hour is coming and has arrived
when each of you will be scattered to his own home
and you will leave me alone.
But I am not alone, because the Father is with me.
Jesus said he told his disciples this specifically so that they might have peace in him. The alternative was to allow a false pride and a premature sense of understanding to grow in the disciples. They said they realized that Jesus knew everything and that he came from God. But when that belief was tested by the dark hour of the cross it proved not to be robust. Truly living out what they professed to believe would have meant following Jesus fearlessly even unto death. But when it came to crunch time, their words proved to be mere bravado, thin posturing for approval in the eyes of Jesus.
Jesus knew his disciples would leave him. He told them in advance not so much in order to cut them down to size as so that they could later return and repent. It was as though he told them, 'In my mercy I see your coming abandonment and look past it to your restoration'.
Jesus knew what he was getting with his disciples, and the same is true for us. He knew what sins we would commit, how we would betray him, and the moments we would leave him alone, even as he was creating us, restoring us in baptism, and feeding us with his own body and blood. None of our sins surprise him. None present a true obstacle to his plan as long as we are confident enough to return and repent. Therefore, the source of our peace in the world is not our own ability to be perfectly holy at all times, it is rather our confidence in the infinite mercy of the heart of Jesus.
I have told you this so that you might have peace in me.
We are in a better position than that of the disciples who were scattered. We are united to Jesus in a deeper and more unshakable way. Just is he himself was never alone because the Father was with him so too need we never be alone because the Triune God has come to dwell in our hearts. For us that means that, in spite of all appearances to the contrary, in spite of all the real and difficult troubles we encounter in the world, we nevertheless even now share in the victory of Christ who has already overcome them all. His victory, applied to our lives, becomes courage.
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (See First Corinthians 15:57).
For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith (see First John 5:4).
On our own we can't think or act our way into a victorious life. Our efforts leave us tired and disheartened. The one who makes it possible for us to live out the victory of Christ in our own daily lives is circumstances is the Holy Spirit. Yet we often relate to the Spirit only distantly, only vaguely aware that there even is a Spirit at all. Yet we have in fact received him in baptism and in the laying on of hands we experienced in our confirmation. Even so, he often remains relatively dormant and inactive within us. Especially as we approach Pentecost we ought to look to rekindle the gift we have been given, and to fan cooling embers into a robust flame.
For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands (see Second Timothy 1:6).
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