The Gospel according to John (16:29-33)
The disciples said to Jesus,
“Now you are talking plainly, and not in any figure of speech.
Now we realize that you know everything
and that you do not need to have anyone question you.
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.
In the world you will have trouble,
but take courage, I have conquered the world.”
Reflection: In today’s Gospel, Jesus quickly points out to the disciples that, though they believe now, there will be a time that comes soon when most everyone will abandon Him, when they are scattered, and they will leave Him alone. One of the greatest tests of our faith is to look at how faithful we are when following Christ is not all that popular. It is in these moments, more than the easy moments, that we have an opportunity to manifest our faith and deepen our resolve to be a Christian.
This reminds me of two words, struggle and failure. Both words originated from the word fear. We (us humans) fear “fear” and we don’t want to face it. At some point, one of two things will happen. We walk away from our fear and never learn or experience what we were supposed to learn. Or we face our fear and encounter this darkness, but the outcome is beneficial. Remember, it’s not the struggles that defeats us but it’s the fear of accepting that challenge.
Then there’s failure. We are brought up in our “success driven society” to avoid failure and we must be successful. We must always win. We are taught that failure is a bad thing. We should always be perfect and excel in perfectness. Truth is we can’t be perfect, no one is perfect. The only one that is perfect in earth’s history is Jesus. Yes, we could attempt to be perfect, but no one will come close. So, the attempt of perfectness comes from one thing, it comes from learning from our failures. When we fail and analyze what we did wrong and what we did right, then we learn from it and we move forward.
Truth is that we were not created to be perfect. We were created to be humble and loving and caring and at peace. Truth is that we were created to fail. Failure is our foundation of our growth. Therefore, success, which we strive for, comes from failure. Sometimes failure lives in that darkness that we try to avoid. But we have to choose to face it, head on, right into the darkness. Yes, we will find roadblocks, detours, closed doors and may even stub our toes but we learn from it. Truth is that this darkness is where we will find God. Truth is this is where we’re going to find our faith.
So, we must not be afraid of falling and we must not be afraid of failure. We should embrace it and move forward. I guess we could say instead of falling down, we should fall forward. Jesus told us that it wouldn’t be easy, but it is our apostolic mission to come together as brothers and sisters; as one united team to fight the good fight with our Faith.
Action of the Day: I am sure we all face different level of Struggle, and we have also failed a time or two. Take time to meditate on each word and ask God what is that I learned or should’ve learned.
Audio Reflection:
