In the final few weeks of the Easter Season, the Gospels for Sunday and the weekdays come from the section of John’s Gospel known as the Farewell Discourse. Jesus is preparing to bid His disciples farewell, not just when He dies on the Cross, but also when He bids them farewell at the Ascension, which we will celebrate next week. His coming departure was no doubt a source of great anxiety and sorrow for these friends of His with whom He has shared His life for three years. In the midst of this special time He spends with His friends, He offers them various promises meant to bring them peace in the midst of their sorrow, not the least of which is the one we hear in the Gospel for this Sunday: “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you always…I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” (John 14:16, 18) A few verses later, He offers another powerful promise: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” (John 14:27)
There are so many other promises that the Lord offers throughout the Gospels that are a source of peace, but these are especially consoling because of their proximity to the sad events that will soon follow. Through our Baptism, we have received this gift of the Lord’s presence in our lives through the Holy Spirit. And yet, we still find ourselves feeling troubled or afraid. In those moments, we would do well to return to these promises which Jesus makes to His friends, promises not meant just for them, but for us as well, for we are indeed among His friends because of the new life He has poured into us through His grace. As we hear those promises addressed to us personally, in the here and now of our lives, in our fear and uncertainty, we discover His peace. With that in mind, I have chosen the following invocation from the Litany of the Sacred Heart for this week:
Heart of Jesus, our peace and reconciliation, have mercy on us
The inclusion of reconciliation with peace is not coincidental. Our greatest experience of unrest in our relationship with the Lord comes not so much when we are afraid about the future, but rather when we have turned away from Him through our sins. In the next chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus offers us these beautiful words: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love.” (John 15:9) Yet, when we sin, we choose to depart from His love. Instead of remaining in His love, remaining in His promises, remaining in His grace, we wander off into darkness, we wander off into a place of sorrow. But the Lord, the Good Shepherd, goes after us, desiring to bring us back into the fold, desiring to restore us to His love, desire to restore our peace through the gift of His mercy in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Over the past couple of years, I have been struck by the words I am privileged to say to every lost sheep who has made their way back to the love of God in confession – “may God grant you pardon and peace.” When our sins are forgiven, all the promises are renewed in us and for us, and a peace washes over our souls.
May the grace of the Holy Spirit guard this peace in our hearts and deepen our faith in His many promises to us, that He will be with us until the end of time, that He will not leave us orphans, and that He will love us to the end.