Take Courage! Why are you Afraid?

As we progress through Holy Week with self-isolation and the various messages or news items concerning the course of the corona virus, I remembered the ‘Gospel of the Testament’. It’s the first of the twelve Gospels read on the evening of Great Thursday. It’s also the longest because it contains the words the Lord said to His disciples on the last night of his life on earth, taken from all four of the Evangelists.

He prepares them for the difficulties they will encounter and for His betrayal and death. He also explains that He is the way that leads to the Father, the true vine Who keeps alive those who remain attached to Him. But mostly He prepares them for the hatred of the world, which He calls upon them to meet with love, with the support and help of the Holy Spirit Whom He promises to send.

Essentially, the Gospel on Great Thursday represents the Testament, that is the agreement which Christ, as Head of the Church, makes with Christians throughout the ages as members of His Church. This is why we call it the ‘Gospel of the Testament’.

Moreover, when the Lord is going to His ‘voluntary passion’, a few hours before His suffering on the Cross, He tells them: ‘You will have sorrow in the world. But take courage, I have defeated the world’ (John 16, 33). In Scripture the word ‘world’ has the meaning of ‘people’ and ‘creation’ but also the sense of ‘evil’, of ‘demonic activities’. This is what Christ means when He tells His disciples that He has defeated ‘the world’.

Now, when the news from the media is affecting our psychological state and no doubt creating worry and questions about today and tomorrow, about ourselves and our families, about our home and our planet, Christ, as the victor over death, might be saying to us: ‘Take courage! Why are you afraid? If you believe that I died and rose, that I defeated the greatest enemy of the human race, death, that I love you enough to die on the Cross, why are you afraid? If I’m concerned about the lilies of the field and the fowl of the air, won’t I also be concerned about you? Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God and in me’.
At the time when His death was approaching, He was completely at peace. And He passed this peace on to His disciples. ‘I’m departing and leaving you my peace. I’m giving you my own peace. I don’t give it as the world gives. Don’t worry and don’t lose courage’ (John 14, 27).

Trusting in Christ, then let us invite Him into our troubled heart through the prayer of the heart. As members of His Church, we can get through our collective Gethsemane and be raised with Him, experiencing the true Easter within us.