In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus says some things that sound rather unsettling: “Behold, the hour is coming and has arrived when each of you will be scattered to his own home and you will leave me alone” (Jn 16:32a); and then further on, “In the world you will have trouble” (v. 33b).
The ideas of being scattered, leaving God behind, and having trouble do not have peaceful connotations; yet, Jesus also says that “I have told you this so that you might have peace in me” (v. 33a). How does this make sense?
I once heard God analogized with a GPS. Now when a driver is using a GPS, and he inevitably takes a wrong turn, what does the GPS do? It does not shut off. It does not give up on the driver and turn its back on him and leave him for dead. It does not say “Your life is over and you are hopelessly beyond my help.” Instead, it immediately calculates a new route to the same, original destination.
God is like a GPS in that, when we make a wrong turn (such as by turning and running and leaving Him when the going gets tough), He immediately reroutes us back to Himself. God is better than a GPS because, in His omniscient and eternal perspective, He already knows that we are going to mess up (and how) before we even do. He has already accounted, from all eternity, for every wrong turn that we will make in our lives, and has even incorporated those extra twists and turns into His plan for us. He can use even our misuse of our free wills to further His will.
And this is why we can have peace, even amid mistakes and misfortunes: for as Our Lord says at the end of today’s Gospel, “but take courage, I have conquered the world” (v. 33c). He is not telling us that we or our circumstances will be made perfect while in this world—far from it; but rather that He is ultimately in control of it all, and unceasingly guiding us toward Himself through all of the imperfections and seeming misdirections that we encounter.
It is great to have you writing for Missio Dei Cameron. Great article.
The idea of being scattered does not have peaceful connotations, but the peace in Christ that became available for humanity from the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is the inner peace of God that passes all understanding, and is a fruit of the Spirit. Christ said in John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you: not as the world gives, give I to you.” The peace of God is not the peace that comes when outward circumstances appear to be going well. It is the inner peace that comes from unconditional trust in God: when we cast all of our care on God. The two are very different. The peace from God is a sustained peace. The peace from the world comes and goes depending upon how well things are going.