There was a movie a few years ago (is twenty-five a few?) called Good Will Hunting. The Will of the title had been beaten and abused as a child and the trauma of that experience created a disregard for others that led to criminal behavior as an adult. The heart of the movie is the relationship between a counsellor and Will. The climax comes when the counsellor says to Will over and over again, “It’s not your fault.” Being able to accept that he was not responsible for what happened to him and that he couldn’t have done anything about it made it possible for Will to begin to heal the trauma and reform his life. What made the scene powerful was the timing. It was only after the counsellor had taken the time to build up enough trust in the relationship that Will was able to hear what he said. If he had blurted it out when they first met, Will would not have been able to take it to heart. Laying the foundation of a relationship bit by bit with empathy, compassion and understanding is what accomplished the moment of breakthrough.
Something similar seems to have been going on between Jesus and his disciples in this scene from the Last Supper in St. John’s Gospel. He had spent the past three years developing a relationship with them. He taught them, he formed them, he loved them. They had learned a lot. They had heard him say they had to turn the other cheek. They had to forgive seventy time seven times. They had to give to the least of the brothers and sisters. But, like your grandmother thumping the watermelon to see if it was ripe, Jesus knew that they were still not quite ready. The timing was a little off. “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.” It was only after the events of Jesus suffering, death and resurrection they understood that there is no crown without the cross. They came to see that Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female were all one in the kingdom of God. They learned that faith was not simply a precious gem to hold onto and preserve but a musical symphony meant to be shared with any and all. After the events of Easter the time had come for a deeper understanding of the faith.
This particular gospel text is assigned for this day, the week after Pentecost, Trinity Sunday. Perhaps the lesson we are to draw suggests that our relationship with the Triune God depends on timing as well. There are times when we relate to God as the All-powerful creator who made heaven and earth and rules over all space and time. God as the Lord of history assures us that the divine will is unfolding as it should. There are other times when we relate to Jesus, the Son of God who chose to become the son of Mary. God is not enthroned above us but shares with us the hopes and dreams, joys and sorrows of a human being. Knowing that because of Jesus we are all children of God and, hence, brothers and sisters to each other alters us irrevocably. Then there are the times when we feel that Holy Spirit of God deep within us, consoling us and guiding us in all things. No matter what our personal timing is, the one God is always there for us. We have the blessed assurance that, since God is for us, who can be against!
Then there is the unique timing of each one of our personal relationships with God. We are not saved as a mass, as a conglomeration, for God calls us all by name. So Jesus addresses those words, “I have much more to tell you,” not just to the disciples gathered at the Last Supper but to us as well. And, if you are anything like me, you want it to be the time for Jesus to tell us the “much more.” Tell us what you really want us to do with our lives. Tell us how to cope with the griefs that we bear, with the sense of loss that can overwhelm us at times. Tell us how to make sense out of the senseless suffering which seems to be woven into our lives and the lives of the ones we love. Tell us how to get over those faults and failings that cling to us like the smell of garlic you’ve just chopped that no amount of scrubbing cleanses. It is perhaps the task of our lives to trust that when the time is right Jesus shows us how to live out our faith in the ins and outs, ups and downs of daily existence.
There is one more issue of God’s timing we should attend to: the time in which we find ourselves as a parish. St. James has a pastor whose charism requires that he develop an apostolic spirit in the laity since every Catholic is called to be an apostle. We have a pope who challenges us to become missionary disciples, called to bring the good news into our homes, our schools, our workplaces, our neighborhoods. As a parish we are completing the initial phase of Renew My Church which challenges us to move from a model of maintenance, caring for ourselves, to a model of mission, reaching out into the local community sharing the gospel. The confluence of these factors, and several others besides, call each one of us to examine how we are living out our faith. Those of us of a certain age remember President Kennedy saying at his inauguration; “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Maybe the “much more” Jesus wants to tell every single one of us at St. James is similar: ask not what we get out of it, but what we can do to bring love, joy, peace, forgiveness, hope into our little corner of Chicago. If not now, when? If not this, what? If not me, who?