In the world you will have trouble
here the world will be by the time we reach Easter seems uncertain. No one can tell what will be happening in Eastern Europe by then.
Closer to home we will soon discover how those with less resources cope with inflation and rising food costs, and increased energy costs will affect us all.
Uncertain times affect the vulnerable – those who are materially less wellcushioned and those who are mentally fragile.
The Church is always called to know what is happening in the world and to meet the needs of the times with a steadiness that can only come through faith in one who has endured the worst of human experiences and taken us through to new life in him.
Talk of staying steady may seem oldfashioned in a world of 24-hour news, and the need for endless stimulation, but when every piece of news is negative, we feel the ground shifting beneath our feet.
Steadiness at such times is at a premium.
In Jesus we have a supreme example of steadiness.
Through Passiontide, Holy Week and Easter, he stays faithful to the message of God’s love, through acclamation, temptation, condemnation, death and, finally, resurrection.
He knows that Easter is only possible if he endures Good Friday, but he carries that truth through to Easter Day without flinching.
In doing so he left us a truth to cling to, and the knowledge that the world’s only hope is to cling to the good news that he carried through all circumstances.
Faith requires a steadiness which prompts us to connect with the world’s troubles, care for others and ourselves, and see the life of the world as something that Christ understood and came to save.
It gives us confidence that Christ, and the truth which he taught and lived, will have the last word.
In the evening before he died, he said this to his disciples: “In the world you have trouble; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
It is a promise to remember in difficult times.
The original version of this article first appeared in the April edition of the St Mary’s Magazine.