FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
7 MAY 2023
The
words that Jesus speaks today are part of his farewell discourse at the Last
Supper in the Gospel of Saint John. He
is trying to prepare them for what will happen after this meal by telling them
that their hearts need not be troubled.
For the past three years, he has repeatedly told his disciples that he
would have to suffer, die, and rise again.
But they could not imagine a crucified Messiah. That is why Thomas speaks for the rest of
them when he asks Jesus where he is going.
He tries to reassure them that his betrayal and death will not be the
end for him or for them. In his
resurrection and ascension, he will prepare for them a place in his Father’s
House.
When he
speaks of his Father’s House, he is not talking about a huge physical Mansion
located somewhere in the sky. He is
talking about the divine communion of life and love in which they will share
with his glorified humanity. In that
divine communion of life and love, there are many dwelling places. We can understand better what he says if we
understand “places” as “rooms.”
Teenagers can tell us how important rooms are in their homes. They are safe and secure in a room that
belongs to them alone. When we are
invited to a banquet, we want to make sure that there is room for us at the
table. We are horrified when we get
stuck in a middle seat on a long airplane trip.
Without room, we feel left out.
We feel exposed to the wild and unpredictable world. Without a room, we feel unwanted. Jesus knew this feeling, because there was no
room for him and Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem.
Jesus
promises that there will be a room for us in eternity. However, like those first disciples, we too
must share in the Lord’s suffering and death.
We must learn to live our baptismal promises better and be more willing
to die to ourselves in a daily basis to share in his rising, and to share
eventually in our eternal room. That is
what Saint Peter tells us in the second reading. The Lord is forming us as living stones into
a spiritual temple. Rejected by the
builders, Jesus Christ has become the cornerstone. As he forms us into this temple, we become
more connected with one another when we live our Baptismal promises. In living our baptismal promises, we are
connected with one another by giving ourselves to a bigger cause.
When Pope
Francis addressed the United States Congress in 2015, he gave examples of four
Americans who gave themselves for a bigger cause. He pointed to “Three sons and a daughter of this land, four individuals and
four dreams: “Lincoln, liberty; Martin Luther King, liberty in plurality and
non-exclusion; Dorothy Day, social justice and the rights of persons; and
Thomas Merton, the capacity for dialogue and openness to God.” These Americans, the Pope said, surrendered
themselves to the Lord and allowed him to form them into something greater.
The Apostles at the Last Supper soon
discovered the horror of one of their own betraying Jesus, of his arrest and
unjust trial, and of his horrific execution on the cross. We face our own suffering and dying when we
choose to follow him, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. In choosing to follow him, we face our own
divisions today. Saint Luke tells us in
the Acts of the Apostles that the Greek disciples complained that the Hebrew
disciples were being favored. So the
Apostles solved the problem by laying hands on the first deacons, all Greek
speaking people. Through their ministry,
they helped them connect themselves better through sacrificial love. Like them, we are not alone in facing
challenges and divisions in our Church today.
Like them, we need to trust that today’s successors of the Apostles, our
Bishops in union with Pope Francis, can guide us in connecting ourselves with
each other better. Formed into a
spiritual temple, we can count on that “room” reserved for us in the Father’s
house.
No comments:
Post a Comment