25/05/2025

Sixth Sunday of Easter

“Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

Jesus assures his disciples that he is not abandoning them. He is returning to his Father, so that, once there, God can send the Holy Spirit. Which God does, as we shall be reminded on the 8th of June.

The fact that he tells them to avoid allowing their hearts to be troubled is evidence that we have control over how we respond to our experiences of life.

During my priesthood, I have come across people  temperamentally more sensitive to threats and dangers, so that they worry and are anxious. Encouraging them to develop a prayer life, to realise that God is with them all the time, helped ease their anxiety.

In my own heart, having survived the Nazis for the first six years of my life, I have been blessed with inner peace.

Death is nothing to worry about. It is inevitable. Just a question of when, where and how. Personally, I can’t wait to be die and thus be able to see God face to face, for all, instant, eternity.

I trust God will keep on keeping me on in good health so I can keep on keeping on celebrating mass for you here.

I will end, without singing it, the Andrew’s sisters 1952 song which I clearly remember as it got stuck in my 13-year-old mind:

“Why worry, why worry?
Worry gets you nowhere at all!
When the sky is darkest, never despair
Find that silver linin' for there’s always one there!” 

That silver lining is the Holy Spirit, for ever in our hearts.