HOMILY FOR FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER (A)

Fr Billy Swan

There is a story told of an atheist who was out walking one day when he accidentally fell over a cliff. As he was falling to certain death he somehow managed to grasp of branch of a tree that was sticking out of a rock. As he hung on for dear life he shouted: ‘Is there anyone out there?’ Suddenly the heavens parted and God spoke to him: ‘You have denied I existed all your life but now I have come to save you. Let go of the branch and I will catch you’. The man thought for a while and shouted out again: ‘Is there anyone else out there?’

This little story is about trust which is the theme of the Gospel today. Trusting is so important not just for faith in God but for all human relationships. Without a basic trust in each other’s word, then life would be chaotic. I meet a friend this evening at 8pm in Rome. I do not doubt he will be there at 8pm as we arranged because I trust his word. He told me he would be there and I believe him. However, it is also sadly true that our trust in each other can be misplaced and betrayed. A breach of trust can hurt and can hurt bad. A breakdown of trust can be healed over a period of time but at other times our ability to trust can be permanently damaged. As someone might say: ‘I'm upset that you lied to me but I'm more upset that from now on I can't trust you.’

Therefore, when it comes to trusting God or another human being, two factors are essential. The first is the conditions that are in place when I am asked to hand over my trust for it is more difficult to hand over my trust that things will turn out fine when every indication suggests they will not. The second is who we place our trust in. I am more likely to trust someone I love than someone I barely know.

With these thoughts in mind, we come now to the Gospel where Jesus tells his friends: ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God still and trust in me’. First we consider the conditions that were in place when he asked them for their trust. It was the night before he died at the Last Supper. Here was a man asking them for their trust as he was about to be killed. Surely it would have been easier to trust in the early days when things were going well with the great miracles and big crowds who wanted to make him king? The disciples had left everything to pin their hopes on Jesus. Yet now, they stood to lose everything. The dream was about to die with him the following day. But still he made this extraordinary request for them to keep trusting him.

For us too, it’s easy to convince ourselves that we have strong faith when things are going well. But when a crisis hits, we discover what kind of faith we have or if we have any faith at all. By faith here I mean trust in God. We all can have a weak faith and think that if God is with us and if he really loved us, then no storm would ever hit us. Life should be all plain sailing. So when some storm does hit, we experience a crisis of faith and think that God has abandoned us.

But Jesus’ words give us hope for while the Lord was leaving them for a while, he was not abandoning but rather going before them. He was saying to them: ‘I know you have left everything to follow me. Tomorrow I will die and it will seem like the end. But keep trusting in me because no matter how bad things get, no matter what disaster happens, never lose faith in my triumph of hope over despair, of truth over lies and of love over hate. Remember I am the way that leads to this hope; I am the truth that lies cannot overcome; I am the life that death cannot destroy. So keep trusting in me. I am about to enter the darkness of hell and come out the other side. Trust in me and you will too’.

This brings us to the second consideration of who we are asked to trust in. Jesus says: ‘Trust in God still and trust in me’. Is Jesus worthy of our trust? Can we trust him? For the first followers of Jesus who preached his name and gave their lives for him, they did so with such conviction because every word that he had said about himself had come true. Everything he had predicted would happen, did happen. He was worthy of trust because he practised perfectly what he preached. His friends had betrayed his trust in them but he had never betrayed their trust in him. That is why the preaching of the Church has never ceased to invite others to place their trust and faith in Him as the greatest life ever lived and the person who will never betray our trust once it is given.

That is why some of the most beautiful prayers of trust are said by us at times of great difficulty and darkness. Prayers like ‘Sacred Heart of Jesus I place all my trust in You’ or simply ‘Jesus I trust in you’. Because of her great trust in the Lord, St Theresa of Avila once wrote:

‘Let nothing disturb you,Let nothing frighten you,All things are passing away:God never changes.Patience obtains all thingsWhoever has God lacks nothing;God alone suffices’.

I conclude this homily with a beautiful prayer written by Thomas Merton that invites us again, today, to ‘Trust in God still and trust in me’:

‘My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.’