Responding to the Divine Absence

Daily Office Devotional, April 25, 2025

Friday of Easter Week

The Rev David W. Perkins, Th.3D.

Key phrases for reflection from today’s Gospel reading:

7 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.

You will find the full text of today’s Gospel reading at the end of this reflection.

Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 958)

AM Psalm 136; PM Psalm 118

Dan. 12:1-4,13; Acts 4:1-12 or 1 Cor. 15:51-58; John 16:1-15   

David's Reflections

Today’s Gospel reading brings us up against the concept of absence.  What Jesus says feels counterintuitive. "It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you."  (verse 7).  Do you find that statement incredible?  Would it really be better to have the Spirit of God present than to have the earthly Jesus with you?  I've been curious all my life about Jesus, the sound of his voice, the cast of his eyes, the shape of his face.  And, I am grateful and expectant about the assurance that one day we will see Jesus in person (1 John 3:1-3).

Yet, we are confronted in these words with that counter-intuitive statement of Jesus. He does say that his followers would profit spiritually from the inner presence of the Spirit more than from his bodily presence.  Could that be true of us as well?  Jesus in John’s Gospel teaches that dwelling within of the Father, Son, and Spirit would not happen until he was crucified and risen.  It is only as the risen Christ that he breathed on them and gave them the presence of the Spirit (John 20).

John Dunne, a Roman Catholic theologian, once wrote:  "An absence is felt only if there is something in us that calls for the presence." * There are times when we experience God's absence, moments of spiritual emptiness and despair.  Some of the spiritual masters, people like St. John of the Cross, speak of a prolonged and seemingly unending experience of that absence as "the dark night of the soul.”#

This gospel reading and other passages tell us that God will absent Godself from us, create a space, an emptiness in our experience.  As Isaiah put it, "You are a God who hides yourself."  Jürgen Moltmann once wrote:   "'To know God means to suffer God', says a wise old theological saying.  We suffer God when we experience (God’s) his absence, when God 'hides (God’s) his face', and we feel God-forsaken, as Christ did on the cross." +

In those times the only evidence we have of God's love and presence is our faith.  Like Job of old or like Elijah in the cave (1 Kings 19), our ability to keep praying, to keep hoping, to keep trusting is our only evidence that God actually exists and loves us.  That prayer, that hope,  that trust may be mixed with doubt and anger.  We may be very disappointed that God has hidden from us, and we may say so quite directly.  Jeremiah certainly did so in his laments (Jeremiah 12, 15, 20).

I find comfort in believing that when Jesus cried, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.", that God,  present in Jesus, was experiencing that ultimate sense of abandonment that we sometimes know only too well.  So, in my moments of emptiness and absence when I am unable to find the light switch and my existence consists of fumbling along a dark wall, could it be that the God who has hidden but who lives within is sharing that moment of emptiness and feeling it, too?  Could it also be that I am being allowed to share in Christ’s own feelings of aloneness and abandonment?

• A Search for God in Time and Memory (Notre Dame, IN:  Notre Dame UP, 1969), p.  173.

# Episcopal psychiatrist Gerald G. May wrote about this in his last book, entitled The Dark Night of the Soul. ((Harper, 2005).

+ Experiences in Theology:  Ways and Forms of Christian Theology, trans. Margaret Kohl (Minneapolis:  Fortress, 2000), p.23.

Collect of the Day, Easter Sunday

Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord's resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.  (BCP, 222)

Friday in Easter Week

Almighty Father, who gave your only Son to die for our sins and to rise for our justification: Give us grace so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve you in pureness of living and truth; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.  (BCP, 224)

Of the Holy Cross

Especially suitable for Fridays

Almighty God, whose beloved Son willingly endured the agony and shame of the cross for our redemption: Give us courage to take up our cross and follow him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.  (BCP, 253)

In the Morning

This is another day, O Lord. I know not what it will bring forth, but make me ready, Lord, for whatever it may be. If I am to stand up, help me to stand bravely. If I am to sit still, help me to sit quietly. If I am to lie low, help me to do it patiently. And if I am to do nothing, let me do it gallantly. Make these words more than words, and give me the Spirit of Jesus. Amen.  (BCP, 461)

A Collect for the Presence of Christ

Lord Jesus, stay with us, for evening is at hand and the day is past; be our companion in the way, kindle our hearts, and awaken hope, that we may know you as you are revealed in Scripture and the breaking of bread. Grant this for the sake of your love. Amen.  (BCP, 124)

A Collect for Mission

Merciful God, creator of all the peoples of the earth and lover of souls: Have compassion on all who do not know you as you are revealed in your Son Jesus Christ; let your Gospel be preached with grace and power to those who have not heard it; turn the hearts of those who resist it; and bring home to your fold those who have gone astray; that there may be one flock under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.  (BCP, 280)

Daily Office Gospel, John 16:1-15

16:1’I have said these things to you to keep you from stumbling. 2They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, an hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God. 3And they will do this because they have not known the Father or me. 4But I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you about them. ‘I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. 5But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, “Where are you going?” 6But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts.

7 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. 8And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9about sin, because they do not believe in me; 10about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; 11about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned. 12‘I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Daily Prayer Offices in The Book of Common Prayer

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer

Noonday Prayer, p. 103, Book of Common Prayer

Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p. 109, Book of Common Prayer

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer

Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer