in my dreams

UNTIL LOVE LETS GO

Imagine that you were one of the Twelve Apostles. You left home, family, trade, and whatnot and followed Jesus who came from Nazareth, a place from where, nothing good ever comes. You went everywhere Jesus went. You heard His teachings and believed everything He said. If ever you had doubts about the sanity and truthfulness of Jesus, you had many chances to leave Him, but you remained with Him. Now, He is saying goodbye. How would you feel?

Then Jesus says, “Do not let your heart be troubled.” His words do not seem to help ease your hurt, do they? Letting go is such a painful process that words — no matter how beautiful and sincere they are— can even intensify the sting of separation. No matter how much we are assured that the separation is only temporary, we still believe that it is better for people we love to be physically present.

But love is not love until it lets go. One who professes love but refuses to let go is not a lover. He is a parasite. Letting go is the ultimate test of love. In the Gospel today, both Jesus and the apostles needed to let go. But their mutual letting go did not mean abandonment or betrayal. Their letting go was the ultimate challenge of their love for one another. Jesus had to let go of His apostles for their sake. The apostles must let go of Jesus so He could complete the mission entrusted to Him by the Father. From then on, the love between Jesus and His disciples – you and I included – would have to grow with faith and hope.

Love demands faith and is nourished by hope. Our faith convinces us what our physical reality fails to prove: Jesus is here with us. Our hope sustains us where human expectation falls short: Jesus will come again and take us with Him to paradise. Faith, hope, and love as St. Paul wrote, are the things that last to the end; and the greatest of them is love. But love is not love until it lets go.

Fr. Bobby Titco