Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 7, 2023

Jesus asks us to trust in God and trust in Him

John 14: 1–12

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.

In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.

Where [I] am going you know the way.”

Thomas said to him, “Master, 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, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said to him, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? 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 speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.

Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves.

Amen, amen, I say to you, 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.”

Music Meditations

• Let Your Restless Heart Be Still—Catholic Community at Stanford Choir (this is gorgeous, folks!) on YouTube video/slideshow
• On Eagle’s Wings—John Michael Talbot
• Lord I Need You—Matt Maher
• Hymn of St. Patrick—Dwight Beal or Jean Watson

Opening Prayer

From Thomas Merton in The Sign of Jonas:

You have made my soul for Your peace and Your silence, but it is lacerated by the noise of my activity and my desires… But I was created for Your peace and you will not despise my longing for the holiness of Your deep silence, O my Lord, you will not leave me forever in this sorrow because I have trusted in You and I will wait upon Your good pleasure in peace and without complaining any more. This, for Your glory.

Companions for the Journey

By Jude Siciliano, O.P. From “First Impressions,” a service of the Southern Dominican Province:

Jesus is addressing his disciples; it is his Last Discourse. His tone and words convey a calm before the storm. Jesus is reflective, concerned and gentle as he instructs his disciples for the last time. He must give both them and the future community (us) courage for what is immediately going to happen to them. He is like a parent who soothes the anxiety of his/her children by telling them, “There, there, everything is going to be alright.” What is going to happen to him will be painful, but in the long run, it will be for their benefit, for he goes to prepare a place for them. “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.”

I have often read this passage at the bed of a dying person or a funeral. It is very comforting to hear Jesus’ promise of a dwelling place for his disciples. A place with God is awaiting us and the knowledge of that place of security with God is both comforting and encouraging. But in the theology of John’s gospel, what is promised and waiting for us—has already begun. If Jesus has prepared a dwelling place for us, it is available to us now. His disciples do not live detached from the world, but are touched by it and face its challenges daily. We try to be a sign of Christ in a world that is tumultuous and often feels like a foreign land. Each of us has a special calling to live our unique lives in our family, job, school, and service to those in need. No two of us live in exactly the same way and so no two “dwelling places” are the same, for each of us has a special share in God’s life. “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.” Though we face confusion, ambiguity, struggle and challenge to our faith, we still dwell and share life with the divine. Jesus has not left us orphans on our own. By his death, resurrection and breathing of the Holy Spirit on us, Jesus has, in a manner of speaking, moved over and made room for us in God.

Jesus’ promise speaks to the itinerants among us—and we are all itinerants who have stopping-off places at various moments on life’s journey. We first live our lives with our parents, then we set out on our own. Many “stopping-off places” follow: we start a career or go to college, marry, have children, work out relationships, face the challenges of sickness and old age. Each stage of our lives we carry much with us that life has given; both in blessing and injury. But each new moment also offers us another “dwelling place” where we experience the life of God for us and in which we receive help as we strive to live the “way” Jesus taught us. (“I am the way and the truth and the life.”) There are no guarantees in life—except that as we move through the changing landscape, we do so in Jesus’ assurance that we dwell with God. Jesus has gone ahead so that he can come back and take us to God—now.

Like the disciples, we too can feel left behind trying to figure out the mess we are in and the seeming absence of God. These words of Jesus today assure us that God is not just up ahead waiting for us. We already dwell with God. That much is secure in our unstable world. In addition, anything we undertake to right the wrongs of our world, we do with the faith that God is up close to us—dwelling with us.

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Do not let your hearts be troubled

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• How does this gospel speak to these stressful times?
• Is it a demonstration of lack of faith if we are “deeply troubled” about things?
  Was Jesus ever “deeply troubled”?
• Do I believe that Jesus understands my confusion and anxiety about the future?
• A return to the Father does not happen at death; it happens now if we align ourselves to the will of God. Do I look on this gospel text as more about life after death or more about life here and now?
  What do I think of when I read the phrase “my father’s house”?
  Is it heaven?
  Is it anywhere God is present?
• Some have suggested that this gospel, which says “I will come back again and take you to myself” not only applies to the second coming of Jesus (Parousia), but also the coming of Jesus for us personally when we die. What do you think?
• This passage is calling us to a radical trust in the goodness and love of God. How hard is this?
  Has anyone ever betrayed your trust in him or her?
  How does that affect your trust in God?
• Do I see Jesus as the face of God, or do I see God as something quite different—a judge, maybe?
• Jesus says that if we believe in him, we will do the works that he does. What are those works?
  How can we complete those works, since we do not possess His power or His goodness?
  How does the Spirit fit into this consideration?
• Do I ever feel like Thomas: “We do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?”
  Does Jesus’ answer to Thomas comfort or challenge me?
• One commentator suggested that Philip’s problem was not that he did not know the Father, but that he had not realized that he knew the Father because he knew Jesus. What do you think?
  What then does Jesus show me about the Father?
• Has there ever been a time when someone trusted you to help him or her and you came through?
• Describe a situation in which you trusted in the Lord. What did you expect to happen?
  How did it turn out?
• Was there ever a time when you prayed for a certain outcome and it did not happen that way?
  How did you feel?
  What was the final outcome?
  What did you learn?
• From Father John Harrington, S.J.:
  How do you try to keep Jesus’ memory alive?
  How might the church today be more effective in keeping Jesus alive?
• From “First Impressions” 2023:
  Thomas said to Jesus, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” Jesus invites his disciples to come to him and put their lives into his hands. We do that by living in relationship with him, listening to his teaching and following his way. In my daily life, in what ways am I choosing Jesus as “my way”?
  What other “ways” am I tempted to choose?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

Adapted from First Impressions, a service of the Southern Dominican Province:

Thomas wants to know the traveling directions to where Jesus is going, “how can we know the way?” But Jesus is using “way” to mean his way of living. Jesus has, as he promised, returned to God, and has been “glorified.” He chose the way to God through suffering and death. The way others have rejected, Jesus chose as his and he invites his disciples to follow. His is the way of giving and sacrifice and because of what he did and who he is, we too can live his “way” to the Father. Believing in him and his way assures us that, in some real sense, we have already arrived into God’s presence. And Jesus has told us that where he is going, we already know the way. How would you define the “way” of Jesus in this present life we are living? What concrete actions can I take this coming week to try to follow the “way” of Jesus?

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

From Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, by Thomas Merton:

One thing above all is important: “the return to the Father”. The Son came into the world and died for us, rose and ascended to the Father; sent us His Spirit, that in Him and with Him we might return to the Father. To “return to the Father” is not to “go back” in time, to roll up the scroll of history, or to reverse anything…. It is a going forward, a going beyond, for merely to retrace one’s streps would be a vanity on top of vanity, a renewal of the same absurdity in reverse.

Our destiny is to go on beyond everything, to leave everything, to press forward to the End and find in the End our Beginning, the ever-new beginning that has no end. To obey him on the way , in order to reach Him in Whom I have begun who is the key and the end—because He is the beginning.

Like the Jesus as portrayed in John’s gospel, Merton seems to be approaching the mystical in this passage as he encourages us to let our restless hearts be still and focus on God as our lodestar. In that way, we are partaking in eternal life right now. What distracts us?

What worries and concerns, what regrets and failures keep us from focusing on the presence of God in our midst at this very moment? Is this gospel passage a comfort or a challenge?

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

What “troubles” your heart these days? One could easily wonder, as the disciples must have, a couple days after their dinner with Jesus when the authorities were looking for them—“So where is Jesus when we need him? Is he who he says he is? Why doesn’t he show himself and help us end the sufferings in the world?” What aspects of Jesus’ person, teaching and activity are most important for you? Reread this gospel today and try to see that Jesus is with us, even if we cannot see Him, and see that He has gone before us to prepare a welcome for us. Share with Him your hopes for a life with God.

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship:

Adapted from “First Impressions,” a service of the Southern Dominican Province:

Do I trust that God is my father, and the father of all of us? Do I believe that heaven exists because God is there? Is God’s name holy to me? Do I really trust that God will give me whatever of this world’s goods I need, or do I worry a lot about money, possessions, security? Do I believe that God forgives me? Do I forgive those who have hurt me, or do I still carry old resentments and pain into my relationships? Do I believe that God would never ‘tempt’ me to sin and thus lose eternal life, or do I believe that God sets traps for me so that I must constantly prove my love? Do I believe that my God, my Father, will deliver me from evil; that God, my Father, is my strength and my salvation?

And finally, I recite the Lord’s Prayer, praying each phrase as an affirmation of my trust in the Lord, rather than as a series of petitions.

Poetic Reflection:

Read the following poem by the late Denise Levertov, a former professor at Stanford. Try to remember a really foggy day in the Bay Area and see if you can recapture the trust expressed here:

Morning Mist

The mountain absent,
a remote folk-memory,

The peninsula
vanished, hill, trees, —
gone, shoreline
a rumour.

And we equate
God with these absences Deus absconditus.
But God

is imaged
as well or better
in the white stillness
resting everywhere,

giving to all things
an hour of Sabbath,

no leaf stirring,
the hidden places

tranquil in solitude.

—from Evening Train

Closing Prayer

Lord, I am trying so hard, in the face of my everyday problems, to focus on the knowledge that you love me and want what is best for me. I really do have faith in you, and I believe you when you say the Father feels the same way, that the Father wants me to be close and safe, both in this world and the next. I can readily imagine a parent wanting the best for her child, feeling sad when that child is sad, and wanting to be with that child forever. Help me, Jesus, to apply that knowledge to my relationship with my divine Abba, my loving Father God. Help me to remember your words: “I am going to prepare a place for you”. See you then…