Francis Gayang csc –
Readings: Acts 6: 1-7; Jn 14: 1-12
As a master Jesus prepares the disciples even when He is no longer with them, for they will have to live His message without His physical presence.
However, blocked by their human limitations, they were not able to grasp entirely all that Jesus had shown them. One reason can be that they did not yet have the Holy Spirit. Responding to their questions, Jesus asked them to have faith in Him. He is the visible image of the Father and all that He teaches comes from the Father. In saying, “I am the way, the truth and the life,” Jesus was reminding them that His teachings are to be their guide, His truth is to be their way of life, and life in its fullness can be received through Him alone.
Jesus also spoke of the heavenly family where we all would have a share as a reward for our righteousness in corporate with the grace of God (CCC 661, 1025, 2795), just as Christ is one with the Father, we too will be given the space, according to our living witness of His commandments. That is how Jesus said, “I will go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
Through the question of Thomas, Jesus has shown the disciples that the way to the Father is Jesus Himself, He is the only way and fulness of God’s revelation. To the confused Philip Jesus responded that He and the Father are one, if they have seen Him, they have seen the Father as well, for He and the Father are one. Through Jesus, we see what God would be if God would be human. If we believe this we can do works that He has been doing, and we “will do even greater things…” By doing what Jesus does, we will continue to glorify God through Jesus; the fullness of God’s love.