Homily for the Morning Mass on the Fifth Sunday of Easter
Acts 6:1-7; Psalm 32; I Peter 2:4-9; John 14:1-12
Conversation 1-to-1 takes up a lot of my time as a priest – and it’s something which gives me real consolation. Often it’s very frustrating too as there is nothing you can do but listen to pain, grief, torment. But very often when someone comes with apparently insurmountable personal issues they are looking for a listening ear which makes all the difference and some reassurance from another human being that things will turn out well in the end, even if it doesn’t seem so at the time. It’s often hearing another human being express the trust that all will be well in the end that individuals are able to go away more positive.
Over the last 7 weeks I’ve had fewer of these kinds of conversations. I wonder if I speak for many to notice how the ‘phone and video calls simply don’t allow for that vital human dimension of being physically present which in itself is reassuring. Conversations are shorter, more truncated, even it seems unavoidably artificial as there is a barrier through the medium, the screen or ‘phone line or whatever. Nevertheless I can still sense under the surface much distress, pent-up frustration, anxiety. I think many of us are dying for the day we can, in the words echoed in the song on Friday (here in Britain for the 75th anniversary of VE Day) “we’ll meet again”. I for one can’t wait and I’m sure all parish priests are the same.
Well the Gospel we’re given today is inviting us to listen to words of comfort calling us to trust that all will be well. The disciples are not in a good place – they know that the Lord will leave them shortly. They are anxious, fretful, confused. They are told they will meet again in heaven where there is a place for them but why should they believe it? Well, I think there is more to this Gospel to take away simply than these words on a page. An ancient tradition in the Church teaches us to look beyond the words, to recognise how the scriptures are inspired – sacred books imbued with divine wisdom – and so we are to be drawn into imagining the scene here, feeling the emotions, placing ourselves in there as we are with Jesus, and allowing him not just to speak through words but through how he is present to us. He wants to assure us not just that all will be well but that he is always at our side, he is with us in our suffering, he wants to accompany us. He is always present.
After I receive Holy Communion in a live-streamed Mass I invite us to make an act of spiritual communion as if he is already present within us. Now that’s not meant to mean he is absent – although I know many must feel that and totally sympathise with that. Priests are able to receive but those at home cannot, at least sacramentally. It seems unjust. But the truth is that Christ, that the presence of God in our midst, is present here. He is present in the Word we are called to ponder and enter into deeply, and he is present in each one of us. He is of course present in a supreme way in the Mass, in Holy Communion, and we yearn to receive him once more in this supreme way, but he is here to nourish us through incarnate means, through his Word and through each other in whom Christ resides as the temple of his Holy Spirit. God is in you, God is in us.
So one way to uncover his presence, to allow him to speak to us, is to take time to ponder the scriptures at Mass. This is the Year of the Word – an invitation to dig deeper into the riches of the Bible where God speaks to us spiritually, wanting to imbue our whole being with who he is present among us. During the lockdown maybe you can find more time to appreciate his presence.
And also maybe we are being called to spend more time in that conversation between ourselves through which I find the presence of God. Certainly for me I find the presence of Christ above all in my encounters with other human beings, through relationship which is of the essence of what it is to be human. Maybe you can ask yourself: where is the presence of God in my partner or my children or my friends or colleagues or those whom I serve? Over these last few weeks I have encountered God especially in the wonderful volunteers we have here and the generous humanity of those at the Connaught Hotel who did what we as humans are called to do, to put others who are in dire straits before ourselves. Where is God present in my world?
But to come back to what Jesus wants us to hear him say to us personally today: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God and trust in me”. To me that seems to say it will work out, there’s a plan for us, there’s a method in the madness of these strange times. I have to admit the more I’ve reflected on how I speak of God’s plan for our lives the more I’ve realised how challenging that can be for us to hear those words: “trust in God’s plan” – we can sometimes just say the words without thinking what they really entail – it’s maybe not so hard when life’s going really well but something enters into our lives – a relationship break-up, illness, loss of a loved one, tragic circumstances in life, depression, mental illness, breakdown of health – and “trusting in Him” as behind everything becomes tough – we need to talk that through – we need to pray harder – we need maybe to rework our oversimplistic notions of God’s determining everything in our lives. He is God, one with the Father, and it is all in God’s plan for the world, is true, but needs teasing out in a personal way for each one of us over the span of our lives. Somewhere there’s a balance to be struck between our freedom to make our own way and God’s determining it.
But for me the key to this particular passage is not Jesus’ telling us he is one with the Father so all is in hand – that might seem strange – not a display of His divinity. The proclamation of his divinity is evident in the “I am” sayings – the Bread of Life, the Good Shepherd and so on. But here is a personal invitation from the God who enters into our lives as a fellow human who loves us deeply and wants the best for us, who desires our happiness and fulfillment. “Do not let your hearts be troubled” is the invitation; and it will work out because he is alongside us always. It will work out not in ways which make it always abundantly clear God is in our world but simply it will work out – even through our lack of trust, our acting freely and making mistakes and blundering through our lives – it will work out – because he loves us deeply and is always at our side through his sacraments, through the Church, through his Word, and yes, through each one of us in whom God resides. That is the basis of our incarnate faith. God is right here under our noses in our relationships, our families, our friendships, what I think many are embracing more and more these days as a recovered sense of domestic, of house, Church.
These weeks between the great Feast of Easter and the Ascension and then Pentecost – the giving of the Holy Spirit to be our helper to bring his message to the world – are sacred weeks – weeks to pray for us as his body on earth, as his Church, that we can be renewed so we may trust more in his presence in the world – guiding us, teaching us, inviting us to be his presence in a world which is longing to embrace in new ways his compassion, his promise of hope, his abiding love for us now and always.
Fr Dominic Robinson SJ