John 16: 5-11
Jesus said to his disciples:
“But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Allow God to Work in Our Lives
It is important for us to recognize that absolutely everything that God does is for our benefit, even when we cannot recognize that clearly. In the Gospel today, the disciples feel grief when they hear that Jesus is leaving them. Jesus clearly explains that he is only going in order to give them a greater good. Even so, they cannot comprehend this in the moment. They cannot see past their own grief. They cannot possibly predict the incredibly beautiful, mysterious, and miraculous ways that God is preparing to provide for them in their new mission.
As human beings who live in time, we have to honestly acknowledge that our understanding of events is nearly always retrospective. Even our understanding of the events of our own lives is continuously evolving. While we often seek to plan or predict or control the future, the reality is that we cannot know with any certainty what will happen in even the next five minutes. And that’s okay. Because the reality is also that we have a God who wants better things for us than we could ever want for ourselves. If we allow God the freedom to work in and through our lives, he will always arrange things to our greatest benefit, often in ways that we cannot imagine.
—Ben Jansen, SJ, is a Midwest Jesuit scholastic teaching English and anthropology at Elisabeth University of Music in Hiroshima, Japan.
Prayer
Lord, you know our hearts better than we know them ourselves. You know all of our needs, our hopes, our dreams, our fears, our merits, and our weaknesses. You love us more than we can possibly imagine as you hold us in existence, moment to moment. The incredible beauty and goodness of your desires for us surpass all human imagining. Please grant us the courage this day and all days to entrust every circumstance of our lives to your infinite, merciful love. Grant us consolation in the knowledge that you always do everything for our greatest possible good, and please guide and comfort our hearts in those moments when we do not understand. In your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.
—Ben Jansen, SJ