A Reflection for Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter
Find today’s readings here.
Have you noticed how Jesus doesn’t directly answer questions? I find this extremely frustrating. Sometimes his disciples just want to know fundamental things, like, “When will we see you again?” and he gives these elusive responses.
In today’s Gospel reading, for example, Jesus tells the disciples what they can expect for the future:
“A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me.”
That’s rather vague. They immediately begin whispering and quarreling about it,wondering what “a little while” means. But:
“Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, ”Are you discussing with one another what I said, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.”
He knows what they want to know when they will see him again, and he pretty pointedly doesn’t tell them. He gives no information about what kind of time frame they can expect, and he promises nothing but “weeping and mourning” in the meantime.
This is a frustrating exchange, and that is how Jesus meant it to be. He is their dear friend, and he understands perfectly their concerns, and he wants them to know that he knows they are concerned because he loves them and wants them to have answers. It’s just that the answers to all their questions are Jesus himself.
How will we find happiness? In Jesus. When will Jesus come back? Jesus knows.
Jesus doesn’t answer questions; he IS the answer. This is frustrating! But it’s frustrating in an older sense of the word. Not so much “irritating” or “annoying” as we use it today, but in the way it’s defined from the Latin “frustra,” meaning “in vain.”
This is why Jesus came: To show us that so much of our energy trying to answer these questions is expended in vain. He knows us, understands us, and loves us and so he constantly reminds us that we’re wasting our time if we look for happiness and fulfillment in this world. We’re fooling ourselves if we think we can put everything down in our planners and work everything out on our own. He wants to save us from sin and also save us from fruitless anxiety and pointless struggles.
Jesus knows that the only way we will find him, trust him and know him is if we stop trying to solve our own problems and stop trying to assume we can plan everything out. He has to frustrate us to clean out all the dead wood so we can see the living heart of the world, which is Jesus himself.
Jesus is the answer. Always Jesus, only Jesus. Jesus is the joy we seek; Jesus is the only one who can fulfill us. Jesus is the only one we should plan around, and Jesus is the only thing worth planning for. Jesus is the only promise that we can be absolutely sure will be fulfilled.
It’s frustrating! And we need that constant frustration because everything else the world tries to offer us is foolishness, dead ends, garbage and lies. It’s all right to ask Jesus questions, as long as we’re ready to hear the real answer.
