“Whoever hopes sees further, who has love, sees deeper, who has faith, sees differently” – this sentence that we may have heard often, reminds that only through hope, love and faith can be understood to understand what seems very difficult, and in a short perspective, on the plane of our everyday life, it may even seem unacceptable.
One of the greatest joys that the priest can experience is probably when after a few or several years he meets his former students, altar servers or youth from pastoral care, and sees that the grain thrown years ago did not die. What’s more, it not only germinated, but turned into a tree that really makes fruit. All gestures, thanks and assurances about the gratitude that you can hear when the priest leaves the parish to go to another, are just a small substitute for this joy that you can survive after years. When you see people who grew up in the shadow of the parish church, and now they build good families, live wisely, honestly and try to bring up their children as well as possible, he experiences completely special joy. It is the joy of seeing further, deeper and differently, the sense and value of which is often appreciated only after long years.
The departure that Christ announces to His disciples is extremely difficult for them to accept. They can’t understand why the Lord is leaving. They experience deep sadness because of this. However, He seems to reverse the whole situation. He doesn’t expect tears, words of regret or consolation. He just wants them not to stop, let them go forward and keep running what He started. He shows that His departure can only be understood by those who really love Him. Those who see further, deeper and differently: “If you love Me, you will enjoy that I’m going to My Father, because My Father is bigger than Me.”
The condition for understanding what is difficult, and at some point may be even sad, is love for Jesus, which opens to the gift of time and to the gift of other people. It is still necessary to remember to come back to Him in moments of trial and without fear, with faith and trust to accept everything that He gives us.