Homily – 6th Sunday of Easter, A – Fr Jeremiah Browne (National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies #Southafrica #Swaziland #Botswana #eswatini)
During the 1992 Summer Olympics, Englishman, Derek Redmond, had his heart set on winning a gold medal in the 400m race. He had been forced to withdraw from the previous Olympics because of injury. However, at the start of the race, Redmond popped his right hamstring, a severe and excruciating injury. The other runners continued the race leaving him behind like an orphan alone on the track. Amazingly Redmond got back up. The other runners had all finished the race in a matter of seconds, while Redmond, in tears, slowly and painfully kept hopping towards the finish line. It looked as if he would fall at any moment.
Suddenly, a man appeared beside Derek. His father had run down from the stands and pushed his way through the security guards to reach his son. Redmond’s father put his arm around his son and let him cry on his shoulder for a second. Then, with his father holding him up, Derek hobbled to the finish line and then he hopped over the line by himself to finish the race.
There is something deeply moving about that image. Derek Redmond was broken, exhausted, injured and in pain. Yet what people remember most from that race is not the injury, but the father who refused to leave his son alone on the track.
That story touches something profound in the human heart because all of us know what it feels like when the unexpected happens, when life doesn’t work out the way that we planned. There are moments when we feel abandoned, overwhelmed, forgotten, or simply unable to keep going. There are times when disappointment, grief, failure, loneliness, illness, anxiety, or fear leave us feeling vulnerable and alone.
There are echoes of Derek Redmond’s story in today’s Gospel (John 14:15–21), when Jesus declares to his disciples: “I will not leave you orphaned.” He speaks those words on the night before his Passion. The disciples are anxious and confused. Everything is beginning to fall apart around them. They sense that Jesus is going away. Fear is already creeping into their hearts.
Jesus knows this. He understands the fragility of the human heart. So he promises them the gift of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit. In other words, he promises them that they will never be alone, that they will not be abandoned, that God will dwell within them to strengthen them, to guide them, to sustain them, no matter what.
So what does this gospel say to our lives today. I think it reminds us that faith doesn’t mean that we will never struggle or experience loss in our lives. Sometimes we mistakenly think that if God truly loved us, life would always be smooth and predictable. But that is not the promise of the Gospel. Jesus himself faced rejection, betrayal, suffering and the cross. What he promises is not a life without pain, but a life where we never face that pain alone.
The Holy Spirit is not simply an idea or a vague force. The Spirit is God’s presence within us. The Spirit is the quiet strength that helps people carry grief they never imagined they could survive. The Spirit is the courage to begin again after failure. The Spirit is the peace that somehow steadies a heart in the middle of uncertainty. The Spirit reminds us that even when life changes unexpectedly, God has not walked away.
Perhaps the deeper challenge of today’s Gospel is not only to recognise that God walks beside us, but also to ask whether we are willing to walk beside others. There are people all around us who are struggling silently. People carrying anxiety, loneliness, disappointment, illness, fear, or heartbreak. Often what people need most is not solutions, but someone willing to stand beside them, to listen, to encourage them, to remind them that they are not alone.
The father who stepped onto the track for Derek Redmond gave the world a glimpse of the heart of God. A God who doesn’t remain distant in our suffering, but who comes towards us, walks with us, and holds us up when we feel unable to continue.
So today, as we listen to this word, let us open out hearts to the truth that God will not abandon us. Even when life doesn’t unfold according to our plans, God remains close to his people.
May the Holy Spirit help us to walk forward with confidence, trusting that we are never alone.
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Please consider praying a decade of the rosary on a daily basis for the evangelising Mission of the Church and the Pope’s intentions.
The pope’s prayer intention for May is “That everyone might have food”
Let us pray that everyone, from large producers to small consumers, be committed to avoid wasting food, and to ensure that everyone has access to quality food.
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Blessed Pauline Jaricot, Pray for us. 🙏🏼🙏🏼
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