Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter
In today’s Gospel we anticipate the promised coming of the Spirit, the Advocate. The disciples are understandably grieving the loss of Jesus, and have difficulty comprehending his words that “it is better for you that I go”.
It is fitting that this time of the liturgical year, accompanies this season of the school year and the anticipation of summer events that are often full of many changes—students saying goodbye to their teachers and friends for the summer (or to their schools and fellow students if they are graduating), weddings, job changes, moving to new neighborhoods or cities. For those graduating from high school or college, there are especially big changes for the young person and parents and family alike. These happy change events of graduation are also sad and scary, because life as we know it changes - there is an empty place at the family dinner table, and more quiet in the house, and the unknowns that come with being far away.
Yet the wisdom that Jesus offers his disciples is also true in our letting go of those near and dear to us when they move away for a time, or when a loved one dies and we grieve the relationship changes. In their absence, in time we come to know the spirit of who they are, and all they have meant to us. We discover more of their real essence and the gifts they have brought us as we experience their absence - and their presence now ‘in spirit’.
In some senses, I have discovered my parents are even more present to me now that they are in heaven, then in the more mundane daily encounters we had all of our imperfections. I can talk with them and ask for their prayers and wisdom, and listen in my heart for their response and the guidance they offer me. They are alive in a way they couldn’t be in the limitations of a human moment of encounter. All they nurtured in me can blossom as I pray and listen to the Spirit-informed guidance in the communion of saints.
May this season and the upcoming feast days of Ascension and Pentecost be time to renew our trust in the Spirit who Advocates on our behalf and shows us the way to imitate Jesus and be His presence in our day and time and the unique path given to each of us.
—Sr. Leanne Jablonski, FMI