Monday of the Seventh Week of Easter

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/052112.cfm

Because of this we believe that you came from God."
Jesus answered them, "Do you believe now?
Behold, the hour is coming and has arrived
when each of you will be scattered to his own home
and you will leave me alone.
But I am not alone, because the Father is with me.
I have told you this so that you might have peace in me.

The stoic is one who believes, because he can do something once, he can do it all the time. But human beings are not like that. Like the Earth with its rotations of day and night, summer-fall-winter-spring, we are cyclic creatures. We run hot and cold, enthusiastic and bored, eager and weary. We grow stronger from our earliest years and weaker with advancing years. We are creatures of Earth.

Jesus knew that very well. He saw his disciples wax with enthusiasm and wane with discouragement. He could boldly charge with them toward Jerusalem and loiter on the road with their fearfulness.

In today’s gospel, toward the end of his prolonged Farewell Address, the disciples declare, “We believe that you came from God!”

Great! Now you’ve got it.

But you’ll lose it again. Your faith will be shadowed with doubt; your confidence, with fear.

That’s okay. Time and again, and again and time, we’ve got to learn that our faith is not in ourselves or about ourselves. It’s about God.

The Last Supper was not the end of Jesus’ story, as the disciples would soon realize. It was only another beginning. It was preparation for what they were about to see, which would be a blinding demonstration of a man’s absolute love of God; and God’s love for that particular man.

Sometimes a husband and wife will hug and kiss one another and seem to forget the world around them. That’s wonderful; it’s sublimely beautiful; although their toddlers are hugging at their legs and trying to squirm between them.

“What about me?” the children are crying.

Don’t worry, children. Your day will come.

In the world you will have trouble,
but take courage, I have conquered the world."

The crucifixion is like that couple's affectionate embrace. Though it is incomprehensible to us, and profoundly confusing, it is Jesus' embrace of God. His head fallen to his chest, his outstretched arms and hanged body show his total abandonment to God. 

Saint Mark’s Gospel reveals that brilliance in the darkest possible moment:

And at three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?”*which is translated, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Jesus’ cry of despair completes the cycle for him. He has abandoned himself; his hope and strength are exhausted. There is no trace of courage or foreknowledge in him. Now God his Father will act in total darkness to deliver him from the grave and show him to the world as Savior, Messiah and Lord.

Seeing Jesus’ faith and his Father’s fidelity we can allow ourselves the earthly cycles of hope and despair, confidence and fear. We can allow God to show us his love for us when we have lost hope in ourselves.