This morning's Gospel is taken from
the fourteenth chapter of Saint John, the setting is the Last Supper. Jesus tells his disciples that
he will be betrayed and go to his father's house to prepare a dwelling place
for them. Then he tells them that they
know the way to where he is going.
Thomas objects, “Master, we do not know where your are going; how can we
know the way?” The answer that Jesus
gives is considered by eminent Catholic biblical scholars as as the
highpoint of Johannine theology. “Jesus said to Thomas, 'I am the way and the
truth and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through me.” For us who
are the followers of Jesus Christ, this is indeed good news, but for the devotees
of other faiths these words can seem
arrogant and disrespectful of their religious experience.
But Jesus is for us “the way, the truth and the life." When you love someone who
loves you, you cannot help sharing this news with the people whom you encounter,
especially when that love uplifts you and transforms your life. Thus the bottom line, according to Pope Saint John Paul is that, even as we respect other faiths, we as Church “offer mankind the
Gospel, that prophetic message which responds to the needs and aspirations of
the human heart and always remains Good News. The Church cannot fail to proclaim that Jesus came to reveal the face
of God and to merit salvation for all
humanity by his cross and resurrection.”
“I am the way, the truth and the
life. No one comes to the Father except
through me.” We can think of this Good News as pointing to our going to our Father in heaven at the end of our
lives. The words of Jesus today about
going to prepare a dwelling place for us in his Father's house reinforce that notion of the other-worldliness of this statement. Yet once the first disciples of Jesus hear
about him from John the Baptist, they go to Jesus who asks them “What are
you looking for?” They answer, “Rabbi,
where do you dwell?” Jesus replies, “Come and see.” To be
real disciples of Jesus we must dwell with him and live in him for he is our life, not just the truth of our message.
Photograph by Brother Brian. Excerpts from Father Luke's Sunday Homily.
Photograph by Brother Brian. Excerpts from Father Luke's Sunday Homily.
