“Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid…”  From the time that we were young we have lived with troubled hearts.  Our hearts are troubled by our separation from those who we love and who care for us.  Jesus tells his apostles today, “I am going away and I will come back to you.”  When those who love us “go away” it causes great distress in our hearts.  One of the most powerful psychological experiences that we need to learn to manage is the fear and anxiety of loss.  Psychologists have called it “separation anxiety” and from the time that we are children we need to learn how to be comforted when those who we love “go away” from us.  When a child is left with a baby sitter the sitter usually has to deal with the troubled heart of the child.  When a mother leaves her child at Kindergarten for the first time, the teacher has to deal with this troubled heart.  When parents take their children to college they have troubled hearts as their children “go away” from them.  People who we love “go away” but we need to learn that they will “come back to us” also.  This takes time. 

     The experience of separation from those we love causes a great deal of interior conflict within us.  This conflict robs us of our sense of peace.  There is an emptiness that we experience when someone “goes away” from us.  What will fill that empty space within us?  Today in the gospel Jesus shows us that he is familiar with the human heart and he knows that we will experience fear and anxiety when he “goes away” from us.  “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  Not as the world gives do I give it to you.”  Jesus knows that we will need a special gift of grace to deal with our sense of loss when he “goes away” from us.   The special gift of grace that Jesus offers us is a “Comforter,” the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is an interior gift of grace and love.  The Holy Spirit is a love that dwells deep within our interior being.  This gift of the Spirit fills the emptiness that we experience in loss.  It is “not as the world gives” because when we seek to comfort ourselves we often choose harmful means, illusory and transitory comforts such as drugs, alcohol, promiscuity or other diversions.  In the end they create within us an even deeper sense of emptiness and pain.  The gift of the Holy Spirit is a real and lasting interior presence that can resolve the interior conflict we are experiencing and lead us to a true and lasting peace.  A deep, strong and vibrant spiritual life gives us the ability to cope with the anxieties and fears of loss in this earthly life.  It refocuses our sense of loss in the present to a greater gain in the future.

     A little bit later in the gospel of John, Jesus tells his disciples, “Do not let your hearts be troubled; you have faith in God, have faith also in me.” (Jn 14,1)  Jesus also tells his disciples today, “And now I have told you this before it happens so that when it happens you will believe.”  The preparation for our experience of personal, interior loss is faith.  What is needed in a time of loss is a strong sense of faith.  Children learn to overcome their fear and anxiety in separation by learning faith.  We must connect the “going away” with the promise of “I will come back to you.”  When a parent leaves for work and then comes back again at the end of the day the child learns to have faith that there will be a reunion with our loved ones.  We can endure the momentary losses by the promise of a future reunion.  In the meantime we may be consoled and comforted by the “spirit” of love that the person leaves us with.  The Holy Spirit can strengthen us and console us by filling the interior emptiness we experience with a remembrance of love.  The person that is away can remain with us through an interior presence that we can carry with us always.  It is this interior presence of the Spirit of love that can give us a true and lasting peace.

     Jesus also tells his beloved disciples today, “If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.”  We must learn to turn away from our lesser selfish feelings of wanting to hold a person back for our own personal consolation and look toward something that is greater, the greater life “in the Father’s house.”  We must set our hearts on things that are greater than our selfish concerns.  Life in the Spirit offers us a tangible experience of the greater life of the Father.  We can endure the sufferings of present loss when we have faith in a greater joy and glory to be gained in Jesus our Lord.  Interior conflict is resolved in faith that Jesus and all those who have died united to him in faith will “come back again” and take us to where they dwell in the greater Father’s house “so that where I am you also may be.”  We know the way, the way is Jesus, the way is Life in the Spirit, the way is a journey of faith in a homecoming that will fill us with a greater joy.  In this knowledge of faith we can find true pe

     “Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid…”  From the time that we were young we have lived with troubled hearts.  Our hearts are troubled by our separation from those who we love and who care for us.  Jesus tells his apostles today, “I am going away and I will come back to you.”  When those who love us “go away” it causes great distress in our hearts.  One of the most powerful psychological experiences that we need to learn to manage is the fear and anxiety of loss.  Psychologists have called it “separation anxiety” and from the time that we are children we need to learn how to be comforted when those who we love “go away” from us.  When a child is left with a baby sitter the sitter usually has to deal with the troubled heart of the child.  When a mother leaves her child at Kindergarten for the first time, the teacher has to deal with this troubled heart.  When parents take their children to college they have troubled hearts as their children “go away” from them.  People who we love “go away” but we need to learn that they will “come back to us” also.  This takes time. 

     The experience of separation from those we love causes a great deal of interior conflict within us.  This conflict robs us of our sense of peace.  There is an emptiness that we experience when someone “goes away” from us.  What will fill that empty space within us?  Today in the gospel Jesus shows us that he is familiar with the human heart and he knows that we will experience fear and anxiety when he “goes away” from us.  “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  Not as the world gives do I give it to you.”  Jesus knows that we will need a special gift of grace to deal with our sense of loss when he “goes away” from us.   The special gift of grace that Jesus offers us is a “Comforter,” the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is an interior gift of grace and love.  The Holy Spirit is a love that dwells deep within our interior being.  This gift of the Spirit fills the emptiness that we experience in loss.  It is “not as the world gives” because when we seek to comfort ourselves we often choose harmful means, illusory and transitory comforts such as drugs, alcohol, promiscuity or other diversions.  In the end they create within us an even deeper sense of emptiness and pain.  The gift of the Holy Spirit is a real and lasting interior presence that can resolve the interior conflict we are experiencing and lead us to a true and lasting peace.  A deep, strong and vibrant spiritual life gives us the ability to cope with the anxieties and fears of loss in this earthly life.  It refocuses our sense of loss in the present to a greater gain in the future.

     A little bit later in the gospel of John, Jesus tells his disciples, “Do not let your hearts be troubled; you have faith in God, have faith also in me.” (Jn 14,1)  Jesus also tells his disciples today, “And now I have told you this before it happens so that when it happens you will believe.”  The preparation for our experience of personal, interior loss is faith.  What is needed in a time of loss is a strong sense of faith.  Children learn to overcome their fear and anxiety in separation by learning faith.  We must connect the “going away” with the promise of “I will come back to you.”  When a parent leaves for work and then comes back again at the end of the day the child learns to have faith that there will be a reunion with our loved ones.  We can endure the momentary losses by the promise of a future reunion.  In the meantime we may be consoled and comforted by the “spirit” of love that the person leaves us with.  The Holy Spirit can strengthen us and console us by filling the interior emptiness we experience with a remembrance of love.  The person that is away can remain with us through an interior presence that we can carry with us always.  It is this interior presence of the Spirit of love that can give us a true and lasting peace.

     Jesus also tells his beloved disciples today, “If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.”  We must learn to turn away from our lesser selfish feelings of wanting to hold a person back for our own personal consolation and look toward something that is greater, the greater life “in the Father’s house.”  We must set our hearts on things that are greater than our selfish concerns.  Life in the Spirit offers us a tangible experience of the greater life of the Father.  We can endure the sufferings of present loss when we have faith in a greater joy and glory to be gained in Jesus our Lord.  Interior conflict is resolved in faith that Jesus and all those who have died united to him in faith will “come back again” and take us to where they dwell in the greater Father’s house “so that where I am you also may be.”  We know the way, the way is Jesus, the way is Life in the Spirit, the way is a journey of faith in a homecoming that will fill us with a greater joy.  In this knowledge of faith we can find true peace.

ace.