When Hurricane Betsy hit New Orleans in 1965 I was all of 8 years old and quite frightened. And I had every reason to be afraid; at one point in the evening the roof peeled off the front of the house and my family was forced to evacuate to the school house 1 block away, in the middle of the storm. All throughout the ordeal, I remember my grandmother telling me to be calm and don't be afraid. Everything will be o.k.
All through our lives we remember when we were afraid and scared but someone would always reassure us. Maybe it was our mom or dad, a sister or brother, our spouse or perhaps a very good friend; whoever it was, they had the ability to help us focus on being not afraid.
As people of faith, do we believe Jesus when he tells us: do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid?
This is the core message of Jesus to his disciples in today's Gospel from St. John. Jesus is carefully giving them the play by play of everything that is about to happen. And he is clearly preparing them for the day when He will not be with them any longer in a physically present way. As Jesus prepares them for His return to the Father, He shares with them the promise of a helper; the Holy Spirit.
This is God's divine plan. Jesus must return to the Father. If not, then Jesus remains limited by time and space, and nothing can limit God. Now that Jesus dwells with the Father in Heaven, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, He is present to us, each one of us, at all times. And by returning to the Father, Jesus knows that it is the Holy Spirit, the 3rd person of the Blessed Trinity, that will continue to polish and refine our love, our holiness and our very hearts. And they can be, with complete trust in God's divine plan, hearts not troubled or afraid.
Before Jesus left the disciples, He explained the how to part; the part that requires our cooperation. His instructions to them are His instructions to us today. We are to love Him by keeping His word. And His word, as we remember from another place in St. John's Gospel, is to love one another as He has loved us. And when we do this, look at the promise Jesus makes in today's Gospel: my Father and I will come and dwell in us; dwell deep within our heart. And with the Father and the Son dwelling within our hearts, how can that heart be troubled?
What should we do this week to make sure our hearts are prepared to receive the Father and the Son fully? How can we become more aware of their presence in our lives? Follow the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and rely more completely on His Church. What can that mean for us this week? How can we rid ourselves of that human fear that all too often invades our very being?
In the week ahead, prepare more fully for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Pray the prayer dedicated to the Holy Spirit and ask Him to prepare our hearts more fully for that indwelling promised by the Father and the Son. Prepare our hearts by making a sincere confession in the week ahead; before we attend Mass again next Sunday. And love one another. Love someone this week who truly needs our love. And love as Jesus loves us.
We will always have things in our life that scare us, like Hurricane Betsy scared me some 45 years ago. But there is truly nothing that can truly make our hearts afraid if we remember the promise Jesus made us. And we will truly experience His peace; the peace only He can leave with each of us.
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