“I won’t leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live too. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them loves me. Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.” Judas (not Judas Iscariot) asked, “Lord, why are you about to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered, “Whoever loves me will keep my word. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words. The word that you hear isn’t mine. It is the word of the Father who sent me. “I have spoken these things to you while I am with you. The Companion, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I told you. “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I give to you not as the world gives. Don’t be troubled or afraid. You have heard me tell you, ‘I’m going away and returning to you.’ If you loved me, you would be happy that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than me. I have told you before it happens so that when it happens you will believe. I won’t say much more to you because this world’s ruler is coming. He has nothing on me. Rather, he comes so that the world will know that I love the Father and do just as the Father has commanded me. Get up. We’re leaving this place. (John 14:18-31, CEB)
Have you ever felt alone?
I’ll be honest and say yes. In a crowded room, surrounded by people I love and love me, I have felt alone. Like no one cared or saw me. I felt like I was invisible and no one cared that I wasn’t there. It actually happens more often than I want to admit. Darkness surrounds me and it seems like there is no light. I understand how people get to the point of ending it because it seems the only way out.
In those moments I call out to God, and sometimes I feel like Saint Teresa and wonder why God has left me. She said that in the moments she did the most work for God, she felt like God was nowhere near her. And yet God promised us to never leave us. Here Jesus says the Holy Spirit is always with us.
We are never alone. I know that, and yet the times come. Remind yourself that you are loved.
You are loved by God and never alone.
Let us share love so when the darkness comes, people will know they are not alone.
Love like Jesus.
Loving People. Loving God.
