It Is Better That I Go
“For the Souls in Purgatory – Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord”
John 16:7
But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
Grace Prayed For
Lord, help us trust your timing — even when departure feels like abandonment and change feels like loss. You are preparing us for gifts we cannot yet imagine.
Reflection
Better that I go. These words must have been nearly incomprehensible to the disciples. The Rabbi who had become their world, who had fed thousands and raised the dead, who spoke with authority unlike any they had ever heard — he is telling them his absence is preferable to his presence?
And yet the Easter season is the unfolding proof of this. Jesus in the flesh was available to twelve disciples in first-century Palestine. The Spirit of the Risen Christ — sent at Pentecost, poured out on all who believe — has been present to billions across every century and every culture since. The ‘better’ is the expansion of Christ’s presence beyond what any physical body could achieve.
But there is a personal dimension too. The disciples’ relationship with Jesus while he was physically present was inevitably shaped by his physicality — by where he was standing, what he was doing, whether he was available. The Spirit-mediated relationship that follows is interior, immediate, always-present. The One who was with them becomes the One who is in them.
This pattern — loss opening into greater gift — appears throughout the spiritual life. The certainties of younger faith sometimes have to give way so that a more tested, more mature faith can grow. The way we imagined God sometimes has to dissolve so that the real God can be received. The spiritual director we relied on moves away, and we discover we have grown roots of our own.
What departure in your life has, in retrospect, prepared you for something better? And where are you being asked right now to trust that a current loss is a preparation?
It is better that I go. Sometimes, incredibly, this is true.
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Sharing
Jesus last words on Earth were to his disciples, can be found in Matthew Chap 28 when Jesus told his disciples, “Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
Jesus calls all of us to share in his redemptive mission here on Earth. I would ask you to share this Scripture reflection with your family, your friends and your acquaintances, and then share it with a couple of individuals that you may may not be comfortable sharing with, keeping in mind always the words of Jesus, And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age
Author was assisted by AI in the drafting of this Post