Jn 14: 1-12
Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.
And you know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has 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?
The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.
Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved. http://www.usccb.org/bible/approved-translations
A Place for Us
The Divine Logos, the Son, has for all time been preparing a place for us.
We have a place here. It is our place among those who believe that at the center of all reality is a loving God who intensely desires to dwell with us and in us. We who believe proclaim God’s love for all. We proclaim God’s sharing in our joys and sorrows. We proclaim God’s care for the poor and the oppressed.
Jesus tells us that he has entered to Kingdom to prepare a place for us. We who believe desire to journey with the Lord and so to enter into the dwelling prepared for us.
We aren’t likely to end up sitting on a cloud strumming a harp. The Kingdom is beyond place and time. It will be a position within relationships. We will dwell with those we have loved (and those we didn’t like very much!). Because these relationships will be through and with Christ the Lord, we will have eternal joy.
Lord, help me to grow beyond my place here into the dwelling you have prepared for me!
—Fr. Robert Flack, S.J. is a retreat director at Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House, Barrington IL.
Prayer
Lord, strengthen our resolve to follow when the way is hazy and our footsteps are not secure. Strengthen our understanding and acceptance that revelation is a process of discovering, choosing, and following you wherever we are in our day, in our life. And should we struggle with taking that first step, assure us that we need but move forward one step at a time in response to your call.
—The Jesuit Prayer Team