Separation anxiety

Ye have heard how I said unto you,
I go away, and come again unto you.

If ye loved me, ye would rejoice,
because I said, I go unto the Father:
for my Father is greater than I.

And now I have told you before it come to pass,
that, when it is come to pass,
ye might believe.

In today’s Gospel (Jn. 14:27-31), our Lord speaks these words of comfort to his disciples as he prepares them for his imminent death.

Our Lord speaks these words also to us who experience the dread and the anxiety of separation. Sometimes it is because we have lost or may lose a person who has been a critical part of our lives. Sometimes it is because we have been or may soon be separated from an environment to which we have become accustomed.

Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid.

We must always embrace the will of the Father, from whose love nothing can separate us.

When we experience either the pain or the fear of separation, we must find refuge and strength in God, who gives peace the world cannot give.

The love of Christ impels us to embrace the Father’s will and to move ever forward in that will and in that love.

We are human: we feel fear and pain and so much else, but we are also eternally gifted with the Divine in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who strengthens us and comforts us in all the things we must endure in this world.

Neither pain nor fear need keep us from accomplishing the will of God by his grace.

Arise, let us go hence.