BE BRAVE!

Monday in the 7th Week of Easter
Jn 16:29-33

“Be brave” these are the words of Jesus to His disciples today. He does not request them nor does He invite them to be brave. Jesus commands His disciples to be brave. But can bravery be commanded? Can we expect anyone to be brave simply because we order him or her to be brave?

Jesus can command His disciples to be brave because He gives them the example of being brave. The day following the supper where He ordered them to be brave, Jesus faces His passion and death with such remarkable serenity and audacity. He gives His disciples more than a command to follow; He gives them an example to follow too.

We cannot command anyone to be brave unless we are brave ourselves. We have no right to laugh at anyone’s cowardice if we are coward ourselves. We cannot order anyone to be anything without providing him or her an example – more than a command – to follow.

The same is true with Jesus’ command that we love one another. Can love be commanded? In his first Encyclical Letter, Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict XVI, affirms that love can be commanded because it has been given first. Jesus can command us to love one another because He has first loved us. Love has been given; thus, love can be expected. Jesus was brave for us even unto death; let us be brave for Him in the midst of all the troubles in a world He has already conquered.