Coal Into Diamonds

In the last half of John’s Gospel, Jesus spends a lot of time in the upper-room, talking to His disciples, preparing them for what is to come: His death and His Resurrection. He wants them to understand that no matter what happens, He will not abandon them. “I will come to you,” He tells them. “You will see Me,” He promises. “And because I live, you will know that I am in the Father and you in Me, and I in you.”

One of the great gifts we receive from God is the model of the “Paschal Mystery.” We call it “Paschal” because it occurred in the “Paschal” or “Passover” Season. And the mystery is that profound truth about God: that He is always working through a process of death and Resurrection in order that we may have greater life always — through pain, through relinquishment, through suffering, through death, into Resurrection, into rebirth, into new life. And the life of Jesus gives us the…