IN the light of Easter, sayings of Jesus heard earlier become clear in their full meaning. In our gospel text (John 14:1-12), things Jesus is narrated to have said just before His passion in the beginning of the so-called Last Discourse now reveal their real import to His followers when meditated upon in the context of the Paschal victory.
Where are you going?
TO pass from this world to the glory of the Father was something Jesus was sure of when “the hour” comes (John 13:1). And in His love for His friends in the world, he assured them, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me”—because His departure does not mean abandonment or separation, but merely preliminary to what is yet to come: the final and total communion with Him and His Father. That is why he spoke of the “many dwelling places” in his Father’s house. His going away is for the purpose of getting for them a place, so that they may also be where He is. He is coming back, to take them to Himself. The fulfillment of everything for them and for Him is clearly spelled out; there is no room of hopelessness among His disciples in the world.
Vital in all is living faith in God who intends to share His life with His own. This must include faith in Jesus in whom and through whom everything will come to pass according to the divine plan. Hence Jesus tells his followers, “Where I am going you know the way.” The question Thomas blurts out drives home the inadequacy of whatever we may know already: “Master, we do not know where you are going, how can we know the way?” We know that raised from the dead Jesus is back in the glory of heaven at the right hand of the Father, but these images hardly exhaust the meaning of the transcendent reality we refer to as eternity with God.
I am the way
Jesus takes His disciples into the certainty of His both hands when He assured them that He is “the way and the truth and the life.” Freeing us from all futile searches and otiose imaginings, He revealed that He is personally the way to the Father and the truth about our salvation and the life of eternal communion we long for. It is all uniquely wrapped up in His person; in Him everything hangs together. In Jesus humanity has already traveled the Paschal road from this world to the Father; in Him humanity has an infallible and always accessible way to God. Clearly, we need to have faith also in Jesus.
Without explaining away the mystery of God’s unconditional love for us, we are reassured and light is cast upon our hopes. There is no other secret way; Jesus asserts, “If you know me, then you will also know my Father.” God’s love is a present favor, not merely a promise for an intimacy not-yet-but-still-to-come. Philip wanted an immediate translation: “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” No one has ever seen the Father except the one who came from Him (John 1:18). Jesus is the answer to the psalmist’s prayer (Psalm 42:3): “My being thirsts for God, the living God. When can I go and see the face of God?” Jesus is the sign and face of God for us: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” The Father and the Son are distinct and they are one.
Alálaong bagá, our life and communion with God is already now, not some day to come. In and through Jesus, the Father speaks to us and fulfills His saving plans for us; eternity for us begins in Jesus. God dwells in Him and He in God. Jesus is the Paschal witness of God to all, making God available to us and humankind capable of God. And as the intimate union of Jesus with God makes Him God’s sacrament of life in the world, our faith-filled fellowship with Jesus makes us a blessing and a sacrament of communion to others whatever their faith, race and social standing. “Whoever believes in me will do the works that I do.” He entrusts to us the work of saving and sharing life He has begun: no dead ends, no lies, no to the culture of death. In us Christians, all peoples are to find “the way and the truth and the life.”
Join me in meditating on the Word of God every Sunday, from 5 to 6 a.m. on DWIZ 882, or by audio streaming on www.dwiz882.com.