Monday, Seventh Week of Easter

Many people have felt very alone and isolated in the past fourteen months. It is a great relief to be able to gather again in some form and to begin to meet up with loved ones. It is clear from today’s gospel reading that Jesus experienced isolation too, especially in the hour of his passion and death. As he says to his disciples in today’s gospel reading, ‘the time will come… when you will be scattered each going his own way and leaving me alone’. Jesus was never more alone than in the hour of his passion and death, especially as he hung from the cross. However, Jesus immediately goes on to say, ‘Yet, I am not alone, because the Father is with me’. Even when his closest companions abandoned him, Jesus knew that God had not abandoned him. God was with him, supporting him, even as he hung from the cross. What Jesus says of himself in the gospel reading, we can all say of ourselves, ‘I am not alone’. Even when we are alone physically, we are not alone spiritually. God the Father is always with us; the risen Lord is always with us. The Holy Spirit is always with us. The Holy Spirit comes down upon us each day, as he came down upon the group of disciples in our first reading who initially said to Paul, ‘We were never even told there was such a thing as a Holy Spirit’. We are never fully alone. The Lord is with us through the Holy Spirit and if we open ourselves to his presence we will experience the Lord’s peace. As Jesus says in the gospel reading, ‘I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me’.

Twitter:  @SJtBClontarf RC
Facebook: @SJtBClontarf
Tumbler: St-John-the-baptist-Clontarf-Rd