Homily for the 6th Sunday of Easter, May 22, 2022. Gospel of St. John 14:23-29. Theme: Tools for a Time of Crisis
“Crisis” is a word that we sure hear used a lot these days. It can be simply defined as the upheaval that happens to us when life as we know it gets turned upside down. There is the crisis of potential nuclear war, the fuel supply crisis, the economic crisis, the political crisis, and of course the recent Covid crisis. In today's Gospel, Jesus is preparing his disciples for the Crisis of his Passion. In addition to this crisis causing them to question if Jesus truly was who he said he was, they will have to figure out what life will look like without the presence and power of Jesus among them.
Jesus knows full well the fear that will grip them and the confusion that will engulf them. So he promises them - and us - three pieces of equipment, so to speak, that will help them - and us - handle any crisis that may come: his Word, his Spirit, and his Peace.
First, he calls us to embrace his Word when he says, “Anyone who loves me will be true to my word.” We Catholics have the Word of the Lord passed on to us in many ways such as the texts of the Liturgy, the teachings found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and of course in the pages of the Holy Bible. These vehicles of his Word enlighten us and show us the sure way in the midst of murky darkness. Cultural and political forces may try to reinterpret the truth and destroy its real meaning, but they will always fail. Truth can be denied and ignored, but it can never be destroyed!
The second tool Jesus gives us for a crisis is the Holy Spirit. He calls the Spirit by the name Advocate, which is what the Greeks of his day called a Defense Attorney! An Advocate was someone with stature who would plead your cause, who stood up for you in time of trial. The Advocate-Spirit is first given to us through Baptism and his Presence is made more powerful in us through Confirmation. This Advocate is like our own personal interior GPS, guiding us to what is true and good, pointing us in the right direction, showing us the way to go. So as long as we have not told him to leave us by rejecting our Faith, the Advocate remains within us always, ever ready to plead for and direct our steps.
Finally, the Lord bestows upon us his blessing of Peace. Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you,” So, what did he mean by saying, “not as the world gives…” Well peace as the world understands it is defined as the absence of war, the lack of social conflict and the end of hostilities between peoples. It is something that happens outside of ourselves and so we are at its whim. But the peace Jesus is talking about is very different. It’s a tranquility and calm that resides deep within us and has its origin in God. It is planted in the innermost part of who we are, our very souls, and brings about a confident serenity from God.
This difference is why Jesus calls his peace something that the world simply cannot give. But too often we search for peace in so many ways that are not God, such as wealth or social status, in body image or relationships. But none of these things will calm a restless heart. The problem, the void, the brokenness is deep inside us. All the things we chase after can never reach deep down into our core and sooth the disturbances that reside there. They can never calm our consciences of the wrongs we have done and which still haunt us.
The peace people truly desire and desperately seek is a fruit of personal relationship with God. This kind of relationship begins when we personally respond to the Word of Christ in our lives, for he himself has told us that it is the proof of our love. When we embrace his Word, the Advocate-Spirit is activated within us, so to speak. The Holy Spirit will help us to turn our lives over to the care of God with confidence in his love no matter what kind of crisis we may be experiencing. When we do this, and really mean it, we then will begin to experience the peace that Jesus is talking about in today’s Gospel; the peace that the world cannot give.
None of us know what lays ahead in the trajectory of our lives. But each of us do know that we will have to face one crisis or another, for such is life on planet Earth. But we can move forward with confidence, knowing that Jesus has given us these provisions for our future: his WORD to enlighten us, his SPIRIT to guide us, and his PEACE to anchor us in the love of God that nothing can overcome.
Jesus Speaks with his Apostles at Last Supper
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