During these final weeks of the Easter season, the Church invites us to linger with Jesus and his disciples in an intimate farewell the night before he died. He is deeply sensitive to their human fears and hopes, and he hears the disciples’ unspoken need for something to hold onto as he seems about to abandon them.
Today, Jesus hears our need for the same reassurance. Writers of both the Old Testament and New Testament repeatedly remind us that the God of love delights in making and keeping promises. Jesus fulfills that tradition by giving his friends—and us—a series of remarkable promises: “Though I disappear from you physically, I will not leave you orphans.” “I will remain with you through my Spirit.” “To those who obey my commands, I will reveal myself.”
We will need to recall these promises many times during our lives when it seems as if we are suffering alone. The action of the Spirit who is Love connects the promises of an abiding presence with a new kind of knowledge. Jesus promises a depth of knowledge available only to those who obey his commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you.” To love like this is immensely challenging, but what a reward it brings: “To those who obey my commands I will reveal myself.”
Those who work among the poor sometimes say they know what it means to experience love as a way of knowing—not only knowing each other but also knowing everything better through each other. Mother Teresa made no formal study of economics or psychology but lived among the destitute on the streets of Calcutta, listening to their needs, healing their bodily and spiritual wounds, knowing them in a way most others could not. To those who love as Mother Teresa loved, the poor are a mystery in which God is waiting to be revealed. That’s why those who work among the poor often say “I receive much more than I give.”
- How do promises you have exchanged with friends and family strengthen you when you feel weak?
Adapted from Word on the Go, a downloadable resource from RENEW International.