Tuesday, April 7, 2015
John 14:15-31
“On that day, you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”
The popular radio program This American Life recently aired a story about students at a Bronx public high school in the poorest congressional district of the United States. Despite the school’s lack of resources, many of its brightest graduates received full scholarships to private universities. Unfortunately, a large percentage never completes that next step in their educations, because they don’t believe that they belong in or deserve their new position. For many of them, they had internalized a message of unworthiness from their families or from growing up in the poorest of conditions.
In talking with my wife about this sad and complex story, we agreed that the program pointed out at least one basic truth (quite apart from the tragedy of educational inequity evident even here in Canada): it is difficult to shake the scripts we inherit from our formative years. If those scripts are positive (you belong, you have gifts, and you are loved), they can be empowering and life-giving. On the other hand, if those scripts are negative (you are unworthy, you are unloved, you don’t belong, and you have no gifts), the consequences can be debilitating and life-denying. “Growing out” of those negative scripts requires tremendous spiritual work, and the support of a loving community.
I come to today’s reading from the Gospel of John with these truths in mind. The writers of this Gospel are struggling to form a community in which members feel loved and included. The Jesus that is portrayed in today’s passage comforts his followers, promising them that after his departure, he will send them an Advocate, the Spirit of truth, to reassure them that they do belong, to Christ, to the Father, and to each other: “you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”
I love these mystical passages of John that describe the interpenetrating union of God, Christ, and his followers. These passages are attempts to put into language the sense of belonging one can get in contemplative prayer or in sharing the Eucharist in a compassionate community.
As a faith community shaped by our meditation on the stories of Christ, are we being formed into a welcoming and inclusive group? Are we passing on life-affirming scripts to the children among us? Are we ably supporting those who struggle with the life-denying messages they inherited from their pasts?
-David Shumaker
To hear the full radio program, visit this website: http://www.thisamericanlife.
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