Fifth Sunday of Easter
Invited into relationship with the Father, Jesus exhorts: “Let not your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1). Yet, troubles surround us. The tragedy of betrayal, the horror of war, the pains of divorce, the onslaughts of evils come. Wave after wave, troubles flood our hearts; yet Jesus simply tells us, “Believe in God, believe also in me” (John 14:2).
Faith struggles. We suffer pains: physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual. These pains disturb our well-being and our remedies often mask, even hide the wounds and roots troubling our hearts. Troubled hearts hide because the pains penetrate deeply repressing and suppressing the troubles. If exposed, others, we believe, will reject us, so we isolate burying our troubled hearts.
Troubled hearts plague history. These tragedies become the plays, poems, and songs that express the pent-up emotions and passions stifling our hearts. No greater expression of our emotions exists than the psalms which sing the sorrows of a troubled heart. As the psalms sing, we understand the evil powers that come to destroy our lives and infuse in our hearts distrust, the source of a troubled heart. We face the fierce bulls of Bashan (Ps 22:12). Our enemies surround us like bees (Ps. 118: 12). Rabid dogs “encompass me, a company of evil doers encircle me” (Ps 22:16). They “set a net for my steps” and “dug a pit in my way” (Ps 57:6). Worst of all the tragedies the psalmist sings, “Even my bosom friend in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread, has lifted his heel against me” (Ps 41:9). Nothing troubles the heart as the betrayal of a beloved friend.
Deserted, our hearts wander looking for comfort and consolation. But solace and support comes not from others, not from self, but from God as St. Paul declares: ”God comforts us in all our troubles” (2 Cor 1:4). Comfort, literally meaning with God’s strength, Pope benedict XVI explains,
His gaze, the touch of his heart heals us through and undeniably painful transformation ‘as through fire’. But it is a blessed pain, in which the holy power of his love sears through us like a flame, enabling us to become totally ourselves and thus totally of God (Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi, # 47).
The blazing love of the Holy Spirit, sent to us by Jesus, promises us a Divine Advocate, a Wonderful Counselor, a Tender Consoler. He stands at our side when our hearts are troubled. His love penetrates the troubles we face and touches their source setting us free. Our hearts embrace his strength, encouraging us to endure, revealing another way, his way that resolves the trouble.
Despite troubles, Jesus exhorts us to belief—trust—in Him for He is the One who saves. He is our friend Who lays down his life for us (John 15:15). He is the Mighty Warrior Who goes to battle (Is 9:6; Rev. 19:11-21). Oddly, the way Jesus saves creates a seemingly greater trouble. He leaves.
Revelation, that mysterious, apocryphal account, describes this war. The dragon, the one who incites envy and evil, attacks, the root of our troubled hearts. He goes “off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus” (Rev 12:17). Bearing testimony, keeping the commandments, causes tension in our hearts. This beast unleashes his venom against us believers creating horrors and terrors distressing our hearts when we obey. Yet, Jesus merely responds,
I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also (Jn 14:3).
Jesus does not abandon us, but battles for us destroying the dragon not by power and might, but by a meek and humble heart.
Meekness and humility destroy the dragon for he cannot endure their force. Instead of domination and confrontation, the weapons of the dragon, Jesus comes riding on a colt, a beast of burden, meek and humble of heart. His heart does not confront and dominate, but serves and suffers with us showing us another way. A way not of force and coercion, but his way. His way endures the troubles knowing that suffering leads to healing.
When you do right and suffer for it you take it patiently, you have God’s approval. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps (1 Pe 2:20–21).
Jesus leaves not abandoning us but battling for us. He never abandons us, though at times we feel desolate as the troubles rage. He cannot leave, He loves us too much. He will come back and lead us encouraging us that He is the way out of trouble. He leads us into triumph when we surrender ourselves suffering his way (John 14:18).
Yet, we ask, Why does he have to leave and battle? As any true friend understands, trust does not entail physical presence, but the invisible bond of trust. Trust secures friendship. Trust knows the other wishes only our best and sometimes one must leave to prepare the way. Jesus leaves and goes into battle with the envy of the Evil One embracing his sufferings which teach us to embrace ours. By suffering, Jesus learned obedience (Heb 5:8). Embracing our troubled hearts, we too submit to the will of the Father, the very act the Evil One could not do. Because we submit, Satan cannot trouble us for we imitate Christ, taking up our crosses.
The evil one chose not to obey and suffer out of love for his Creator. He chose to rebel. He could not embrace meekness the heart of divine love. Meekness, the power to persevere despite the evil forces trying to destroy, embraces the onslaught. Meekness trusts God’s power to transfigure the evils and envies we face into goodness and forgiveness. He changes hatred into love, sorrow into joy, despair into hope, and war into peace. Or as St. Paul reminds us “Everything works for good with those who love him” (Rom 8:28). We, along Jesus, submit to God’s ways, not our ways nor the evil ways. We do not let the evils and envies overwhelm us, but we “overcome evil with good” (Rom 12:21). Doing good to those who trouble us, as counter intuitive as it is, defuses evil and makes us good.
Returning goodness for evil counters our troubled hearts. Entrust yourselves to Christ when our hearts are troubled. This is the Christian way. We do not need revenge, nor take vengeance. God’s ways guarantee justice will be done.
Nevertheless, his way, the halakah, walks the way of Jesus Who meekly and humbly obeys the Father. We, who struggle following the Way, suffer troubled hearts. His way offers restorative love, that forgives, frees, and fortifies our troubled hearts. His cure for troubled hearts, asks us to change our hearts. To change our ways and follow his way: the meek and humble way.
Now the battle completely changes. We do not battle the dark forces intent on destroying our hearts. The real battle is not with the enemies who attack, but the enemy within our very heart. That enemy is doubt. Nothing troubles our hearts more than doubt, that distrust of the Mighty Warrior Who gave his life as a ransom so we may have life.
Feeling alone, abandoned by the One Who promises to save us, Jesus exhorts us to remain faithful. Trust in my plan! His plan prepares a place that is safe and secure. This place is not a building made of stones, but a temple, a sacred place where meekness reigns. In this temple, we exchange our troubled hearts for a his humble heart. In this temple, our very bodies and souls become his and He becomes ours. In surrendering, He abides in our hearts, as we abide in his heart. In his abiding presence, his Spirit teaches us all things (John 14:26). Yet to have this abiding presence, our doubt which relies on our personal strength must be exchanged for trust in his divine strength. Fortified by his might, He makes us strong trusting his power to bring good out of evil, to bring forth life from death, to change hate into perfect love. Trusting in his love makes all things new.