Do Not Let Your Hearts Be Troubled

Do Not Let Your Hearts Be Troubled

Fr. Marcel Emeka Okwara CSsR

In the Gospel of John 14: 1-3 our Dear Lord speaks to us in a veryassuring and comforting way when he says, "Do not let your hearts betroubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house,there are so many mansions. If it were not so, I would not have toldyou that I am going to prepare a place for you. And when I finishpreparing a place for you, I will come back again and take you tomyself, so that where I am you also may be."Firstly, the Lord wants us to do away with fear and worry. He wantsus to be strong. He wants us to be courageous, and this courageshould be based on our faith in God and in Him; "believe in God,believe also in me." Some translations have it as, "Have faith inGod; have faith also in me." Either believe or faith, they are sayingthe same thing. The real issue here is that Jesus wants us to havefaith in God and in him. What then is faith? According to St. ThomasAquinas, faith is a spiritual contact through which we receive thefruits of the Passion of Christ, fruits that are constituted of theremission of our sins and of the gift of grace that introduces usinto eternal Life, the very Life of God. In other words, let us saythat, through faith, we live of the Life of the risen Jesus, and weare already resurrected with Him, in the measure that we remain incontact or in communion with the Passion of the Lord. Now, there aretwo aspects of faith: The first is that we must accept withoutseeing, touching, hearing, smelling or tasting what we believe. Wemust be ready to accept first what we believe before understanding.The second aspect of faith although simultaneous with the firstaspect, but it is its consequences: Faith gives us light, faithenlightens us, and faith illuminates all of our life. Faith accordingto Fr. Anayo Nna CSsR, gives us stability in life, stabilityespecially in the face of trouble, death of beloved ones, sufferingassociated with poverty and sickness. Faced with human suffering,faith in God and in Jesus keeps us going. It keeps our head up andnot down. Faced with disappointments, frustrations and failures,faith in God and in Jesus Christ keeps us strong. We believethat "this too shall pass away." We believe that because he lives, wecan face tomorrow. Faith in God and in Jesus also makes us to yearnfor God. Remove faith in God, and life will become meaningless.Recently, a research in America shows that believers in God arehappier than atheist. Faced with economic recession, inflation,poverty, sickness, loneliness, abandonment, scandals, hatred, crime,insecurity, corruption, moral decadence, wars and rumors of wars,believers in God and in Jesus cast all their worries on Him who caresfor them. God had said to us in the Sacred Scripture "Do not beafraid." And this injunction "Do not be afraid" is recorded 365 timesin the Bible, meaning we have one for each day. Each day, God says toyou, "do not be afraid."So today, our dearest Redeemer invites us his followers to believe inGod and also to believe in Him. But my question is this: Is there anydifference between believing in God and believing in Jesus Christ?The answer is Yes, and it essential. For us Catholic Christians, webelieve in Jesus Christ the Son of God. We do not believe only inGod, as followers of other religions do. We believe in Jesus Christ;we believe that he suffered, died and resurrected. We believe inthis Man, Jesus of Nazareth, who died and was resurrected, who isfirst and foremost God, and the Son of God! We believe that Jesuswill come again in glory to take us to himself.
Brethren our dearest Redeemer and Lord has gone to prepare a placefor us. He says there are so many mansions in his Father's house. Itmeans each and every one of us has a mansion in God's kingdom. Butremember that Jesus is the only Way, the only Door, the only Gate togain entrance into your own mansion. There is no other name by whichwe can be saved, but the Precious and Powerful name of Jesus. Do notallow the pleasures of today constitute an obstruction to gainentrance into your mansion. Do not allow the riches of today become astumbling block for you; never allow the pains of now, the sorrows ofnow, the disappointments of today hinder you. In Romans 8: 38 St.Paul says, "I am certain that nothing can separate us from his love:neither death nor life, neither angels nor heavenly rulers andpowers, neither the present nor the future, neither the world abovenor the world below- there is nothing in all creation that will everbe able to separate us from the love of God which is ours throughChrist Jesus our Lord." This love can only be perfectly enjoyed whenyou get to the mansion above. If you have no means of owing amansions here on earth, do not miss the one our Lord has kept for usin heaven. And if you have acquired mansions here on earth already,remember they are like a passing shadow. Remember the words ofJesus "Store up your treasures above where moth will not destroythem, and where thieves will not be able to steal them." The PromisedLand is no where here on earth, not even in America.