Last Sunday, this Sunday and next Sunday the Gospel comes to us from parts of the Last Supper Discourse, when the Lord Jesus tells His apostles that He will leave them for a time and they become filled with fear and uncertainty—they undergoing a crisis of faith.

Of late I have received numerous letters, calls or emails that describe everyday life complete with words including “fear, crisis, and uncertainty” in everyday life because of the current pandemic. Add to that the fact that fear and anxiety are reinforced each day via all the television commercials hastily rewritten and filmed for the pandemic—everything from auto insurance products and car repairs to fast food pizza and hamburgers—highlighting their personal concern for our safety as they retool their businesses to alleviate product contamination due to Covid-19 by way of human hands free, curbside pick-up or the absence of normal face-to-face human interaction. If you weren’t paranoid yet, stay tuned—as you see just how much life has changed.

Fear is a powerful motivator, certainly. Amid the changes Jesus’ discourse warned of, He dealt with humanity’s concerns when He told them He had to leave them for a while. He informed His apostles that He will ask the Father and the Father will give another Advocate to them—the Holy Spirit—to guide humanity to all Truth and to Advocate for all. We aren’t alone!

Scripture scholars tell us that the Last Supper Discourse is truly a lesson on the basics of our faith: The Word made flesh; that God’s love is made present in Jesus Christ; which then leads us to Good Friday’s prime example of love: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends”. (John 15:13) A love that seeks the excellence of the other.

The fear of the early Church most likely was felt by the apostles in that they wondered where He would go and why Jesus was leaving them; what would life be like without Him? How can they handle this change? The fear and anxiety of uncertainty—then and now—is alarming and uncomforting. The change to our everyday life is an upheaval? Dates for when we return to normal life are unknown, timelines change from day-to-day.

But there is something missing in all this manmade fear and uncertainty: Trust in God. We need to replace fear with Trust built with faith. Faith that we believe Christ showed His apostles more than 2000 years ago and which remains true for us today: If we belong to Christ we have all that we need, as the Father has sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within us, to guide us to all Truth and to unite us in His Love, the Holy Spirit, with Himself. While we might find it more immediately comforting to just yell out where are you Lord? Come back now and show us what You said is true! In fact, we have all we need—we are not abandoned, we are His sons and daughters and He is with us always. The Holy Spirit assures us that He remains in us if we remain in Him.

It is His Love that forms and conforms us to His power. The other day on Simsbury Community TV there was a show—never saw it before—where the host was interviewing a Wicca priestess who said that, and I am paraphrasing her, that all relational love is conditional and if we want unconditional love we should get a cat or dog? She even quoted Scripture in saying that to love your neighbor as yourself is difficult—seemingly impossible.

But I believe she is mistaken in the kind of love she was talking about. You see God’s Love for us is not a hallmark-kind-of-love that bespeaks all warm and fuzzy feelings, a kind of do whatever makes you feel good or gives you “purpose.” Rather, God’s Love seeks the excellence of the other. He brought us into being by His creative love, then redeemed us by His magnificent love, and then out of eternal love gives us the Holy Spirit so that we are not alone or lost or fearful, but rather we are His—connected always to the vine grower: Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.

God’s love is not a responsibility- or obligation-free love; His love is unconditional as He will never abandon, forget or give up on us. His love does have conditions or obligations attached: “Love one another as I have loved you.” So He says to us each day: Receive the Holy Spirit (as you did at Confirmation)—Pentecost is coming! And remember the words of Dr. Kevin Dowd who spoke recently to our Confirmation candidates about what Christ ask each of us every day: Will you finish my work? He asks us not to finish His work in fear or with anxiety, which clouds and confuses who we are and what we are to accomplish, but rather finish His work in-and-through the power and love of the Holy Spirit. With His immortal conditions or obligations, which are only meant to seek the excellence of ourselves and the other.