Note: On Tuesdays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
“But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” (John 16:5-7, NRSVCE)
Change. It’s never easy.
Of course the disciples see Jesus’s looming departure as a Bad Thing. Why should they care where He’s going? They know it’s away from them, and they love Him. They mostly trust Him. They’ve gotten used to Him being around. His departure is not only going to grieve them, it’s going to upset life as they’ve lived it for the past three years. Who will decide where they will go? Who will 
lead them? Who will teach them? What will become of them?
We do the same thing, of course. When someone dies or moves away, it’s natural for us to wonder how this absence will change our lives.
Change. It’s never easy.
In what world, you can hear the disciples thinking, would we be better off without Him? But He has promised them they will be. That’s because the Advocate in the form of the Holy Spirit will come—and be with them always. Of course they didn’t understand at the time. It’s difficult for us to understand with two thousand years of Sacred Tradition. But as we grow in faith and dependence, we find the Holy Spirit opening our minds, hearts, and souls just a little more each day.
You see, it truly was better for the disciples that Jesus was leaving. His earthly work among them was finished. Now, it was time for the Holy Spirit.
Change. It’s never easy. But it very often is glorious if we choose to embrace it fearlessly.
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