I am with you always

Sixth Sunday of Easter 2020

Readings for Year A: Acts 8:5-8.14-17; Psalm 65; I Peter 3:15-18; John 14:15-21;

Next Thursday, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. The Gospel reading for that day is St Matthew’s account of the event which ends with the last words of Jesus to his disciples, “And know that I am with you always, yes, until the end of time”.  These words raise a question: but how is he present with us?

 Not so long ago, I read a recently published book by the much respected Dutch spiritual writer Henri Nouwen. Although he died in 1996, his archivist has discovered tapes of lectures which he gave when a professor at Harvard Divinity School some ten years before his death. These have now been transcribed and each lecture forms a chapter of this new book which has a title which sums up all our lives are about, “Following Jesus”. I would encourage you to read it if you can.  It has the subtitle “Finding our way home in an age of anxiety”, which is especially apt just now.

In one of those chapters, “The Presence”, Nouwen reflects on the presence of God and how it affects us. He speaks firstly of how someone can grow closer to us not only in his or her presence but in their absence too. For example, we can grow in love for people who have died. We can come to know each other in a new way. A new intimacy can grow as their memory becomes a real, active presence in life.  They take a place in our heart and keep nurturing us. They keep leading us along and deepening our lives.

Nouwen then writes about how the presence of God creates in us a desire for the future. For many, the future is a source of anxiety and fear. “What if my children get sick with the virus?” What if I lose my job or the economy collapses?” Our fears have a way of pulling us away from the present. But when we are sure that God is present with us always, we can let the future emerge from the present. We don’t have to worry about the future, about what might happen next, since the one who walks with us now will continue to walk with us: as he takes care of us now, he will take care of us in the future too.

Thirdly, Nouwen writes about a presence we can practice in our daily lives, a form of prayer which he, like others before him, calls the “practice of the presence of God”. God is here with us, always was and always will be, until the end of time. Prayer is a simple attentiveness to that presence. There’s no need for deep thoughts or bright ideas; no need to worry about what to say or how to say it. Just sit and remember his presence, the presence of God who is love, and be attentive to it. You might say “Lord, I am here. I love you and I know you love me” or use a simple mantra repeated slowly many times, such as “I love you Jesus, my love, above all things”. We can stop and pause during the day, just for a few moments, at home, at the shops or at work, and remember his presence with us and simply say “Lord, I love you” and “Thank you”. The more we can take brief moments like that, the more easily we can attend to His presence in a longer time of prayer.

Such prayer which practices the presence of God also makes us more alert to opportunities for service. The God who is with us makes us more sensitive to the God who is with others. The Christ with us helps us see the Christ in others. Jesus said, “When I was hungry you gave me to eat”. So we find ourselves more drawn to Christ in the poor, to those in pain and to those who struggle. In this way, as Nouwen says, attentiveness to the presence of God who is always with us and with others is at the heart of following Jesus.

At this time so many of us are cut off from family and friends, and we can feel alone. Spending some time remembering the words of Jesus before the Ascension, “I am with you always”, and reflecting on what they mean, in the ways Nouwen suggests, can be a great source of peace and consolation.

Fr Michael Holman, SJ