May 14 – Fifth Sunday Easter: John 14:1-14
On the eve of the Passion Jesus tells his disciples don’t be troubled. “Trust me.” He is going to leave their corridor of habit, the day-to-day tomb they mistake for fullness of life and bestow upon them the power to sojourn, settle, dwell (meaning also: ponder) within the boundless neighborhood of the real world. – And you know the way to the place I’m going. Thomas says, We don’t know where you are going; you mean there is some place other than this one we are so used to we don’t even notice it? And how can we know how to get there? Jesus says, I just told you I am the gateway into that spacious world. I am also the truth, the revelation of everything concealed behind every wall you build, every prejudice you cling to, the real face of your neighbor, even of your current enemy.
Jesus then mentions the Father, the Source of all being and Philip says That will do it! Show us the Father and we shall be satisfied. But even now – during his first coming – Jesus says, Have I been with you all this time and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has already 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? We are all here together. You can’t divide us up into a future and past, an inside and outside. Even as the Father is simply present always, so I am – in the days to come and even today, day by day. Even as I have been present at Cana and in Samaria and at the grave of Lazarus – even as I was present when 6 year old Philip shouted “Open Sesame” and Marcel’s grandmother told him to tap on his wall. Such are the works of my Father who, with me, is always here and now. Get used to it, bask in it, be my presence yourself.”