Dear friends,
Many among us here can remember to have heard today’s gospel reading at a different and mostly sad context or situation: at the funeral of a loved one. Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God, have faith also in me… I am the way and the truth and the life.”
While these words of the Lord seem to be heard as consoling words in time of sorrows, grief, and mourning, today another light shines for us as we listen to the Lord from a completely different angle. They follow the first and the second readings which insist on the choice God has made of us, calling us from darkness to his light, and making of us a chosen race and royal priesthood.
It is exactly here that the words of the Lord bear the whole meaning. We are unworthy of the choice and we feel powerless, unprepared to follow the One who calls us. Jesus comes to comfort us in our struggles to follow him. Time and again, we tell him that we are willing to follow him. Yet, over and over again, we fail to do so. Then we are embarrassed and fearful, unable to know what to do. The Lord tells us to just fix our eyes on him. It is only with and in him that we can undertake the journey of discipleship. Because we did not choose him, but he chose and established us as disciples.
Two things to consider here. For one, Thomas tells the Lord about his confusion to understand and to follow the Lord. He says, “we do not know where you are going.” He thinks there is a path both Jesus and them should follow. But Jesus tells him that He is the way to eternal joy and true happiness. How many times have not we embarked on a wrong journey as we strive to find peace and joy? Jesus tells us today that as a chosen people we already have him. It is just a matter of listening to him and following him, because he is the way, and the truth, and the life. Once we are with him there is nothing we shall want. Think about this, that Jesus is the only one we have to rely on to have peace and solace. “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Amidst the challenges of our life, we feel powerless and confused. Jesus comes to show us where the most essential thing for our fulfillment is: in Him.
Secondly, like all of us, Philip struggles to understand the mystery of the unity between the Father and the Son. So he asks the Lord to show them the Father. Is not that our ultimate desire also? To see the Father face to face? Of course, yes. Yet, we still do not get it. Jesus enlightens us as he tells us that there is nothing else we can search for to see the Father; we need only to listen to Him and to follow him. Because his words are not his own, but those of the Father. The unity and oneness between the Father and the Son is clearly displayed and demonstrated through the unity of nature, will and desire. Because what the Father wants, the Son does it. Therefore, for us to see the Father, we need only to follow the Son who is the visible image of the invisible God, as Saint Paul puts it. Like Philip, we struggle and fail to see the Father already with us in His Only Begotten Son. Is not his name Emmanuel, meaning “God is with us”?
As we receive him in this Eucharist, we let the Holy Trinity dwell in us. To accept Jesus Christ and to welcome him in our life is to accept and to welcome the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. For the Son said, “whoever believes in me, my Father and I will come to him and we will establish our dwelling with him,” and give us a share in the place prepared with and by the Father.
Fr. Emery