May 10, 2020

Jn 14: 1-12

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.

And you know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” 

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.

Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.

New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.

The way to our Father’s house

“In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places.” In these long days of “sheltering in place” we can all feel the growing desire to want to be out of our dwellings and outside again in the sun and air. It’s helpful to remember that our “Father’s house” is a vast expanse of light and life and the fresh air of heaven. Jesus promises us that this is the reality of love’s fulfillment that awaits us. 

And what is the road to the Father’s house? Jesus tells Philip – and us - “You know the way.” The way leads out of our homes’ hallways and driveways and beyond our neighborhood sidewalks, and out onto the path that is Jesus himself. In one sense, we are meant to walk along with him; but moreso, we are invited to enter into him and into the mystery of his love for us.

—Fr. Rick McGurn, SJ, is a retreat director at Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House in Barrington, IL. 

Prayer

Lord…Teach us your way so that it becomes our way today, so that we may come closer to the great ideal of Saint Ignatius: to be companions of Jesus, collaborators in the work of redemption.

—Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ