Sixth Sunday of Easter (C): John 14:23-29
We have just heard Jesus tell us “Do not be troubled or afraid”. We have heard Jesus say, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you”. We might imagine that Jesus is talking about our state of mind; that He wants us to be calm, untroubled, free of any conflicts. This sometimes happens to us, but this is not at the heart of what Jesus is saying to us. We need only look at Jesus at Gethsemane to see this. There, Jesus takes on all our fears, anxieties, conflicts, and sins, and does so out of love, desiring to do the Father’s will. No, what Jesus is saying to us could also be translated, “Do not be cowardly or give in to fear”. In other words, Jesus is urging us to boldness in following Him.
Boldness.
In his exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate, Pope Francis speaks of boldness as one of the five signs of Christian holiness that is especially needed in today’s world. Boldness does not mean “in your face” merely for the sake of being “in your face”. Nor does it mean being “brutally honest” in the sense that we like being brutal more than being honest. No, boldness is an essential part of the Christian life. It is “an impulse to evangelize and to leave a mark on the world” for the sake of Christ and His Church. The Lord has promised us that He is with us always, and that we need never allow fear to stop us. Paul declares, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” These promises of Our Lord empower us to go forth and serve Him with the same courage that the Holy Spirit stirred up in the Apostles, impelling them to proclaim Jesus as the Christ. Enthusiasm for the Gospel, courage, the freedom to speak out, and apostolic fervor are all included in the concept of boldness.
One example of this boldness in action can be found in the fourth chapter of Acts. The Sanhedrin had just ordered Peter and John to not speak in the name of Jesus and had threatened them if they did. The Christian community then gathered in prayer. They did not pray that the Sanhedrin or the Romans suddenly become nice to them. They prayed that the Lord would give them the strength to proclaim His word with all boldness. This boldness is courage born from love. It is the conviction that we have nothing better to offer anyone but the Good News of what Christ has done for us, and that he is here with us in our weakness, enabling us to dare and to risk everything in His name.
Jesus Himself lived this boldness in His ministry among us. His whole life was a witness to how nothing was more important than doing the Father’s loving will. In Nazareth, when the people He grew up with wanted to control His ministry, He boldly announced that He had come for all people. When some of His relatives came, claiming that He was out of his mind and trying to take Him into a kind of protective custody, He declared that His true family were all those who heard the Word of God and kept it. He was not minimizing the role of the family; He was placing commitment to God as the highest good, even above that of family. Jesus reached out to people who were rejected or insulted or abused in any way, offering them healing, forgiveness, and salvation, regardless of the consequences for Himself or His reputation. Jesus was never willing to settle for the status quo, if it conflicted in any way with His Father’s loving will for us. He challenged His followers to have the same commitment, the same boldness, the same courage that is born out of love. He constantly shook the complacency of His disciples and showed them how much more they could do and be if they truly had faith in Him.
We, too, are challenged to have this same boldness in our lives as Catholic Christians. However, this is not easy for us. We may find ourselves like Peter during Holy Week. At the Last Supper, in the presence of Jesus and the other disciples, Peter could boldly declare that he was ready to die for Jesus rather than deny Him in any way. We need not consider this an empty boast. Peter followed Jesus this far, in spite of Jesus’ warnings about what would happen to Him in Jerusalem. We can assume that Peter was quite sincere. However, not long after this, Peter found himself in the high priest’s courtyard. Jesus is now arrested and on trial. Peter is now surrounded not by fellow disciples and friends of Jesus, but by enemies. Peter is challenged three times, and each time he immediately crumbles and denies having anything to do with Our Lord. Why? Peter did not yet know how to nourish and sustain his boldness. He was isolated and cut off from support. More than this, he did not yet have the presence of the Risen Lord and the Spirit in his heart.
We find ourselves tempted to act like Peter did when our faith and commitment to Our Lord and to the Church is challenged. We may be tempted to deny our faith outright. If not, then we wheel and deal and compromise. We ignore “inconvenient” aspects of our Catholic faith in order to please people we are with, in order not to stand out; in order to have a “quick fix” peace that can never truly satisfy. We become “stealth Catholics”, invisible during the week, but visible only at Mass on Saturday or Sunday. We prefer complacency. We fear standing out.
How can we embrace and nourish the boldness that Christ asks of us?
The first way is by maintaining a firm connection with the Catholic community. We are far more vulnerable to the temptation to compromise, to give up, to be timid, if we feel isolated and alone. Jesus always send His disciples out two by two. Paul always travelled with one or more companions. Even if we are part of a parish that seems too timid, if we can find only one or two others who share our Catholic commitment and encourage us to become saints for Christ, we will find great grace through this.
The second way is found in our Gospel reading. Jesus tells His disciples: “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.” The Holy Spirit will remind us of all that Christ has said to us and done for us. Not only of all that Christ has done for His Church as a whole, but of all that He has done for us in our own lives as individuals in the Catholic community. Remembering the Lord’s presence, His faithful love, and His powerful deeds among us, we are empowered to live our faith with holy boldness, for we know that all things are possible with God.
The third way is to recall constantly that, no matter where the Lord may send us, He is already there. He loved us in our past, He loves us now, and He is already there as we move into a future committed to His service. He is there to strengthen and heal us when we meet opposition or hurt, even if it comes from those who should be the most loving to us. He knows what it is to be betrayed by one of His own. In joy and sorrow, He goes before us. He is already there.
Pope Francis once said that though we always need to open the door of our hearts to Jesus, who stands and knocks, “sometimes I wonder, though, if perhaps Jesus is already inside us and knocking on the door for us to let Him out from our stale self-centeredness” or our fears or our complacency. Let us allow the Lord to stir our hearts for His loving service, to rouse us from our inertia, and to dare to “ go out into deep water and lower our nets for a catch”. Let us be willing to risk mistakes and even failure in order to more boldly go and announce the Good News of salvation in Christ. For the Lord can even take what looks like a failure or a weakness and make it into a great victory for Him. In this way, we can be ready when the Lord chooses us to do a new thing for His people, and be ready to welcome the Lord’s surprises and to praise Him for His goodness to us!