Friday of the Fourth Week of Easter

Lectionary: 283

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. 

You have faith in God; have faith also in me. 

In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?

And if I go and prepare a place for you,

I will come back again and take you to myself,

so that where I am you also may be.

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.

As I write this Indianapolis is reeling under the impact of another mass killing. The incidents have skyrocketed this year in the United States. Politicians are just as helpless to stop them as civil authorities, police, the news media, and religious leaders. They occur suddenly, unpredictably, anywhere and everywhere. 

President Biden has described them as an epidemic, comparing the deaths to those of the coronavirus, drug abuse, alcoholism, and suicide. If anyone profits by these incidents, they loudly and insistently deny it. Although there is much finger-pointing, no one assumes responsibility or blame. They make no sense. 

Although federal authorities are turning their attention to homegrown terrorism sponsored by ultra right wing agencies, most mass killings are not intentionally terrifying. They appear to be the work of madmen, severely disoriented persons who cannot direct their energies toward creative solutions. Although they often follow a formula of killing first and then suicide, they seem to have no purpose. The killers have not thought about their consequences. 

Victims were arbitrarily chosen to die; they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. That is, they were in the United States at this time. And yet few of us are fleeing our homeland for a safer place. Either we hope the madness will not find us, or we feel sent to this place at this time. 

I was sent to Australia in 1980, but returned in 1981. Like Saint Anthony in Morocco, I got sick and had to return home. I suppose the Lord was pleased with my willingness to migrate to a foreign country but he wanted me here in -- as Che Guevara called it -- "the heart of the beast." I could not make a huge difference anywhere but that isn't important either. 

In today's gospel Jesus speaks of many dwelling places. I'll assume these are many safe places. But his idea of a safe (or good) place and ours can sometimes be radically different. His good place to die was a cross; his good time to die was as the paschal sheep were being slaughtered. His safe place was the will of the Father. 

Jesus assures us again, "Do not let your hearts be troubled." 

We might tremble with fear as he did in the Garden of Gethsemane, but we'll pray, rise up, and go about our mission to be the Presence of God's mercy in an anguished world.