Fifth Sunday of Easter
“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.’”
Summary
In the Biblical tradition, it is not possible to see God. Even those prophets such as Elijah and Moses who are given a glimpse of God, only see his back.
Yet, in John 14:1-14, Philip asks Jesus, show us the Father. Jesus is astounded. Not because Philip has asked to see God but because God has been right in front of his face all along: “Have I been with you all this time and still you do not know me?”. The early Christians were living in a time of great uncertainty, they needed reassurance. The kind of reassurance that Stephen is given as he dies in Acts 7:55-60, to “see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” Yet Jesus points to the truth about God: that God is here, right in front of us; that God can be closer to us than our own skin and is visible in the lives and actions of those who open themselves to God’s presence.
FIRST READING
Acts 7.55-60
But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’
At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.
While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Then he fell on his knees and cried out, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ When he had said this, he fell asleep.
GOSPEL
John 14.1-14
Jesus comforts his disciples
‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I 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. You know the way to the place where I am going.’
Jesus the way to the Father
Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’
Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.’
Philip said, ‘Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.’
Jesus answered: ‘Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
