Object Permanence upon Secure Attachment, Rooted in Complete Trust (Full of Faith) in Our Object Relation to Jesus: Antidote to Anxiety in Working the Way of Jesus during the Pandemic Time of Uncertainty – the 5th Sunday in Paschaltide (A)

The Gospel reading for the last Sunday, the 4^th Sunday in Paschaltide (Good Shepherd Sunday)(John 10:1-10) reflects how important it is to listen to and follow only the Good Shepherd so that we will not go astray in confusion and fear.

Since his Ascension, our Good Shepherd has not been with us physically. Since Pentecost, however, he has been shepherding us through the Holy Spirit, whom he calls another Parakletos (John 14:16). Thus, he continues to remain with us as the Good Shepherd, through the Holy Spirit. And, being the Holy Spirit to shepherd us, he provides us with the gift of discernment (1 Corinthians 12;10) to help us recognize his voice out of noises that Satan makes to confuse us, so that we can follow only the Good Shepherd through the Holy Spirit, without being deceived by fake shepherds, whose mission is to destroy us.

During this confusing and anxiety-provoking time of uncertainty due to this unprecedented global pandemic of covid-19, triggered by a totally new zoonotic virus that our immune system does not know and tends to react in cytokine storm panic, we realize how important it is to stay focused on credible truths and remain calm, while Satan and his collaborators constantly act like false shepherds, bombarding us with fake news.

This reality reflects how important it is to discern the voice of the Good Shepherd, out of so many confusing voices of fake shepherds, whose voice sound like even sweeter and more comforting but only to mislead to destruction. The teaching of our Good Shepherd applies to our critical needs on how we exercises our critical thinking to discern what is scientifically accurate and what is not, in order to navigate this time of uncertainty in dealing with the pandemic, without sinking in fear and anxiety, without being disturbed and confused.

Following Jesus’ message on discernment not to be confused on last Sunday, this Sunday, we hear Jesus’ comforting us not to let our hearts be troubled by keeping our faith in him by reading the first 12 verses of his farewell speech and prayer, spanning from John 14:1 to 17:26, as an antidote to fear and anxiety so that we can remain calm and stay focused on a truth, as important as the Word of the Good Shepherd.

Faith, literally means trust in its Greek word used in the New Testament - pistis (πίστις). So, keeping faith in Jesus means that we trust in him.

Just as the sheep trust their Good Shepherd (reflecting what we have learned last Sunday), we keep our faith in Jesus, our Good Shepherd to navigate through the anxiety-provoking time of uncertainty, remaining on the way of him, even his physical presence is not seen.

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“Do not let your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1), said Jesus to his disciples in his Last Supper discourse. Jesus said this in response to his disciples’ anxiety, which arose as a result of telling them of the immediacy of his departure from them (John 13:33, 36).

To fully understand the Gospel reading tooday (John 14:1-12), we must understand that it is in the context of the Lord’s Supper, after Jesus washing his disciples’ feet (John 13:1-20), speaking of the betrayer without naming Judas (John 13:21-30), and began his discourse upon Judas’ departure from the scene (John 13:31-16:33), followed by his prayer (John 17:1-26) just before his arrest.

So, it all began with these words of Jesus:

Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and he will glorify him at once. My children, I will be with you only a little while longer, You will look for me, and as I told the Jews, ‘Where I go you cannot come,’ so now I say it to you. I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.    John 13:31-35

Just imagine how you would react to these words of the Lord, if you were one of the disciples with him at the Supper.

Would your attention go to the Mandatum Novum to love one another, as he has loved them, as a sign of being his disciples?

If you were more like Peter, probably not.  Peter seemed to have had some kind of attention deficit, and therefore, he was rather impulsive in his reaction.

So, Peter asked Jesus, “Master, where are you going?”(John 13:36), and Jesus replied, “Where I am, you cannot follow me now, though you will follow later”(ibid.). To this,  Peter reacts impulsively, without reflecting, “Master,, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you” (John 13:37).  To this, Jesus reminded Peter that he did not know what he was saying to foretell that he would deny Jesus three times (John 13:38).

Peter was obviously anxious about the prospect of Jesus’ departure, and his anxiety prompted his impulsive statement that he would follow and even die for Jesus.

Spiritually, Peter was not yet mature enough to really follow the way Jesus was going – to the Cross. Yet, his emotion was running ahead, because he really loved Jesus. Yes, Peter meant well. But, he was not really ready yet to follow. That is why Jesus said that Peter would not be able to follow him now but later.

Peter and the rest of the disciples had spent about 3 years with him, journeying from Galilee to Jerusalem, from Jerusalem to Galilee, and back to Jerusalem, multiple times. They have directly heard him speaking the Word of life, have directly witnessed all the signs that he performed, and have shared table fellowship together.

 They had heard him foretelling his death and resurrection multiple times. But, perhaps, a prospect of the death of their beloved master, Jesus, did not register in them well. So they kept journeying with him with a great curiosity about where they would end up as a result of following him.

Now, all the hopeful prospect of following Jesus has come to crush on the night of the Lord’s Supper, on the night before his death, as he speaks clearly of his departure.  And, this time, he makes it sound like a farewell address to them.

Jesus was aware of the anticipator y grief among the disciples, in response to his announcement of the departure. So, in order to mitigate their anxiety, arising from the anticipatory grief, he gave this discourse spanning across John 14, 15, and 16, to assure that his departure does not mean abandoning them (i.e. John 14;18; cf. Matthew 28:20). Rather, he wanted the disciples to understand that his departure is for their sake  - for them to have a heavenly place with him (John 14:2-3) and to be benefitted from the Holy Spirit, as another Parakletos, the Spirit of the truth, in the meantime (John 16:8, 13).

With this context, this is where today’s Gospel reading comes in with this statement of Jesus: Do not let your heats be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me (John 14:1).

 Through these words, Jesus first comforts the disciples. And, this is his way to guide the disciples to overcome their separation anxiety, to put in a term of psychology. The rest of Jesus’ Last Supper farewell discourse and prayer, spanning from John 14 through John 17, are like Jesus’ efforts to bridge the anxious disciples in anticipatory grief to the psychological state of what Jean Piaget calls “object permanence”.  Object permanence is a cognitive state of a young child, who is no longer anxious, even though his or her mother’s physical presence is not in his or her immediate sight. Piaget explains that it is achieved due to the child’s cognitive development. And, what assists this cognitive development, as I believe, is attributed to what Erik Erikson argues as trust between the child and his or her parents, as well as to what John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth define as secure attachment between a child and his or her mother. In Erikson’s psychological development theory, trust between a child and his or her parents is the foundation for healthy psychological development throughout a lifespan. In my opinion, the trust that Erikson argues corresponds to the secure attachment between a child and his or her mother (or primary caregiver) in the attachment theory of Bowlby and Ainsworth.

 In the Piaget’s cognitive development theory, a child usually achieve the state of object permanence, a significant decrease in experiencing separation  anxiety, around the age 2, provided that the child has developed secure attachment with his mother and established trust with her. In other words, based on psychological empirical theories of Piaget, Erikson, and Bowlby and Ainsworth, solid trust, which characterizes secure attachment, enables us to be immune from separation anxiety, through the state of object permanence. And, Jesus’ words in John 14, 15. 16, 17, on the night before his death, reflect a critical transition for the disciples to attain object permanence in their object relationship with Jesus, after spending 3 years together. Whether the disciples would experience separation anxiety or not depends on the level of their trust in Jesus.

It is like a situation, in which a mother telling her 2-year-old child not to worry as she is about to step away from where the child is to prepare for lunch to share. And, the child does not feel that the mother is abandoning but understands that she needs to step away for his benefit ( so, being fed by the mother).

So, what will Jesus do for his disciples, upon his departure?

Jesus says that it is to prepare the residence for them in heaven, where he came from and where the Father is (John 14:2) and he assumes that they understand this (John 14:3).

 This indicates that his departure does not necessarily refer to the immediate departure, his death on the Cross, on the following day but his Ascension, on the 40^th day from his Resurrection (Acts 1:3), after his death. This is why Jesus assures that the disciples would have another Parakletos (John 14:16) so that they would not be left like orphans (John 14:18).  Jesus was referring to the Holy Spirit, who is coming on Pentecost, when he said “another Parakletos”(John 14:16). And, because he is “another”, there is the original Parakletos, and he is Jesus himself (1 John 2:1). Parakletos is often translated as Advocate or Comforter. But, it literally means one who is called to be beside someone.  So, the disciples are always with the same one, in whom they trust, whether as another Parakletos (Holy Spirit), who is not physical, thus, invisible,  or as the original Parakletos (Jesus, the Son of the Father), who is fully physical, as well as spiritual, therefore, visible and tangible,

On the night before his death on the Cross, Jesus, the original Parakletos begins to prepare his disciples to make a transition, from him to another Parakletos, namely the Holy Spirit, to continue experiencing his constant presence as their guiding companion on his way to the Father.  This is why Jesus said to Thomas, who asked him how the disciples would know his way, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then, you will also know my Father. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him”( John 14:6-7).

 As the above words of Jesus to Thomas explain, the transition to the state of object permanence of the Parakletos, from the visible one, Jesus, to the invisible one, the Holy Spirit, is a necessary factor for the disciples to stay on his way to the Father.  And, he represents the Father, as he is not only the way to the Father, as the Good Shepherd is the gate to the verdant pasture, but also is the truth and the life, which also represents the Father. Later, when the object permanence state is achieved, the Holy Spirit will represent these.

Jesus elaborates on this truth about him and the Father a bit more in response to Philipp’s “Show us the Father”(John 14:8) request.  Basically, Jesus reiterates what he said in John 10:30, the consubstantial oneness between the Father and him, the Son,  That is why Jesus said that he and the Father are in each other reciprocally – he in the Father and the Father in him (John 14:10, 11; 10:38 cf John 16:32).

 When Jesus spoke this to the disciples, in response to Philipp’s question, Jesus was away from the Father physically, as he was on earth and the Father remained in heaven. Nevertheless, the truth is, based on John 10:30, 38 and 14:10,11) Jesus, the Son, and the Father remain to be in with each other. So, this reflects that Jesus and the Father are also in the state of the object permanence, to put it in psychological term, indicating the secure attachment and complete mutual trust between Jesus and the Father.

 In fact, as the rest of his discourse and prayer in John 14, 15, 16, 17, reflect Jesus’ desire to extend the kid of object permanence he has with the Father, rooted in his secure attachment with and compete trust in the Father, to his disciples. And, it is found in particular, in John 14:20; 15:1-11, and 17:21.

 As we make a transition to the state of object permanence with Jesus, we are becoming one with him, as he is in us and we in him, reflecting his oneness with the Father, he in the Father and the Father in him. This is why Jesus says, “Whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it” (John 14:12-15).

Just as a securely attached child, trusting his or her mother, in the state of object permanence, is free from separation anxiety and therefore is able to do some chores to help the mother even when the mother is not physically around, Jesus is saying to his disciples that they can do the work of Jesus even on a greater scale, as they remain in him, as he remains in the Father, through the Holy Spirit, after his departure.

The disciples, as the apostles, would not have been able to do the work that Jesus started doing, if they had been plagued with separation anxiety and could not have attained the object permanence state with Jesus, modeling his object permanence status with the Father. And, the First Reading today (Acts 6:1-7), as well as the First Readings from the Acts throughout Paschaltide, describes how the scale of the disciples’ works upon receiving another Parakletos on Pentecost had exceeded that of the original work of Jesus. The First Reading gives a snapshot of the disciple’s growing mission work, resolving the complaint from the Hellenist members, by ordaining seven new deacons, to meet the increased pastoral needs. It is important to know that these seven chosen and newly ordained deacons, represented by Stephen, who became the first martyred Saint, was full of faith as they were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 6:5).

We cannot do the work of Jesus and expand it unless we are full of faith, filled with the Holy Spirit. This means that we need to completely trust in Jesus, as he trusts in the Father, by being one with him – being in him as he in us, as he in the Father as the Father in him. Though he had already Ascended, Stephan was obviously one with Jesus, as he was one with Peter and the rest of the apostles, enjoying the benefits of the Holy Spirit and the prospect of Jesus preparing their places in heaven.

Today’s responsorial Psalm refrain, reflecting Psalm 33, sings, “Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you”. It is the very kind of mindset we need as we continue to navigate this uncharted ocean, tainted with novel corona virus and covid-19 pandemic.  This refrain resonates what we repeat three times in our Divine Mercy chaplet, “Jesus, I trust in you”.

As Jesus said, the Divine Mercy is our protection (i.e. Diary of St. Maria Faustina, 299, 1540). It is like the Ark of Noah, on which we are safe, through the storm. As we go through the storm of the covid-19 pandemic safely, we must be on the protective vessel of the Divine Mercy. And, for this benefit, first and foremost, we need to put our complete trust in Jesus, who is, indeed, the Divine Mercy himself.

In order to further expand works of Jesus through our works on earth, accompanied by the Holy Spirit, another Parakletos, while Jesus, the Parakletos, is working where the Father is, we do need Divine Mercy so that our works reflects the Mercy. In this troubled time of the pandemic, the world really needs the medicine of Divine Mercy, and we shall work hard as channels of the Mercy, reflecting the word of St. John XXIII and the word of Pope Francis on Mercy.

In the Second Reading (1 Peter 2:4-9), Peter describes the one, in whom we put our total trust, faith, in is a living stone, as well as a corner stone rejected by those who do not believe and have no faith but treasured as the object of faith, trust. And, he also says that our work in faith is to build a spiritual house upon this stone, Jesus.

What is this spiritual house that we build through our work in faith, upon Jesus the living corner stone?

Can we do this work if we are bothered by anxieties due to a lack of faith?

How can we keep us free from anxieties, especially during this anxiety-provoking time of the covid-19 pandemic?

Let us learn a lesson from how Jesus helped the disciples, suffered from separation anxiety due to their anticipatory grief, upon the prospect of Jesus’ physical departure.

Let us experience how our faith (trust) in Jesus can help us attain true object permanence, therefore, complete spiritual union with Jesus, as he enjoys with the Father, through John 14 , 15, 16, 17, so that we can expand the works of Jesus, as the apostles did, as written in the Acts of the Apostles, and so that we can build a spiritual house of Divine Mercy, where the Medicine of Mercy is given to heal those who have been plagued with suffering and pain, especially during this pandemic time.

Only in our trust-filled (faith-filled) object relation to Jesus, we find the secure attachment with him, just as the branches are securely connected to the vine (John 15:1-17), we find peace and freedom from anxieties, including separation anxiety, as we attain object permanence with him, as he has with the  Father. This way, we are in him as he in us, reflecting him in the Father and the Father in him. This is what is necessary for us to continue on his way through our works, guided by another Parakletos, the Holy Spirit.